Drugs, Smuggling, Prostitution Were 0.28% of Bulgaria's GDP in 2013

The turnover from illegal activities as drugs production and placement, alcohol and cigarettes smuggling, and prostitution is at BGN 225 M (EUR 112.5 M), the head of Bulgaria's statistics office has said.

Sergey Tsvetarski, who chairs the National Statistical Institute (NSI), told the Bulgarian News Agency BTA in an interview that the figures reflected previous flash estimates.

The sum constitutes about 0.28% of the Bulgarian gross domestic product. Early projections about 2014 should be expected in September.

In Bulgaria, 2013 is the first year to which the European System of Accounts 2010 method is applied to calculate GDP.

The move to start using the system does not change GDP growth rate, but provides account on the "underworld" sectors' activities.

Results about 2013 come to a surprise since government officials have previously put the value of each of these industries, taken separately, at hundreds of millions of BGN.

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