An unofficial market in goods or currencies, especially in a country with a controlled economy.
平行市场
Example sentencesExamples
You see goods and services are priced at the parallel market rate (black market) which is usually about double the official rate.
Many smallholder farmers had to buy grain on the parallel market at high prices and sell to the government at lower, fixed prices.
The spread between the legal exchange rate and that prevailing in the informal street market produces strong incentives for the diversion of a variety of current-account receipts from legal channels to the parallel market.
Dr Banda explained that those that sell the dollar on the parallel market are then able to bring into the country huge quantities of imports which would not otherwise be possible with the official exchange rate.
Just as price controls on sugar, say, drive the sale of sugar underground or to the informal sector, so price controls on forex have driven it to the streets - the parallel market and the black market.