Introduction. Given that the underground economy, as a whole, can stand for and/or deepen the budgetary deficit of any country, by diminishing the level of revenues to the state budget, leading, as a consequence, to restrictions as to the public spending volume, thereby adversely influencing the living standard of its population, the focus of the study is related to laying, to a reasonable extent, the general framework, for limiting, via well-grounded macroeconomic fiscal policies and other related, targeted measures, the negative effects of the same.
Aim of the study. The aim of the paper is to reveal the main causes and consequences of the underground economy, seen as a mix between the shadow economy, reflecting the officially unreported monetary transactions, and the black economy, consisting in the criminal monetary transactions associated with the latter.
Keywords: underground economy, shadow economy, black economy, budgetary deficit, macroeconomic policies
JEL Classification: E26, E61, H62
