Illicit Financial Outflows Cost Developing World $859 Billion in 2010 - study

From Global Financial Integrity in Washington, D.C.:

Crime, corruption, and tax evasion cost the developing world $858.8 billion in 2010, just below the all-time high of $871.3 billion set in 2008—the year preceding the global financial crisis.  The findings are part of a new study released today by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organization.

The report, “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2001-2010,” is GFI’s annual update on the amount of money flowing out of developing economies via crime, corruption and tax evasion, and it is the first of GFI’s reports to include data for the year 2010.

For this estimate, GFI have changed their methodology compared to previous reports.

Dr. Kar and Ms. Freitas’ research tracks the amount of illegal capital flowing out of 150 different developing countries over the 10-year period from 2001 through 2010, and it ranks the countries by magnitude of illicit outflows. According to the report, the 20 biggest exporters of illicit financial flows over the decade are:

China ....................... $274 billion average ($2.74 trillion cumulative)
Mexico ..................................... $47.6 billion avg. ($476 billion cum.)
Malaysia .................................. $28.5 billion avg. ($285 billion cum.)
Saudi Arabia ........................... $21.0 billion avg.  ($210 billion cum.)
Russia ....................................... $15.2 billion avg. ($152 billion cum.)
Philippines ............................... $13.8 billion avg. ($138 billion cum.)
Nigeria ...................................... $12.9 billion avg. ($129 billion cum.)
India ......................................... $12.3 billion avg. ($123 billion cum.)
Indonesia ................................. $10.9 billion avg. ($109 billion cum.)
United Arab Emirates .............. $10.7 billion avg. ($107 billion cum.)
Iraq ......................................... $10.6 billion avg. ($63.6 billion cum.)2
South Africa ........................... $8.39 billion avg. ($83.9 billion cum.)
Thailand ................................. $6.43 billion avg. ($64.3 billion cum.)
Costa Rica ............................... $6.37 billion avg. ($63.7 billion cum.)
Qatar ........................................ $5.61 billion avg. ($56.1 billion cum.)
Serbia ....................................... $5.14 billion avg. ($51.4 billion cum.)
Poland .................................... $4.08 billion avg. ($40.8 billion cum.)
Panama ................................... $3.99 billion avg. ($39.9 billion cum.)
Venezuela ................................ $3.79 billion avg. ($37.9 billion cum.)
Brunei ..................................... $3.70 billion avg. ($37.0 billion cum.)
For a complete ranking of average annual illicit financial outflows by country, please refer to Table 2 of the report’s appendix on page 36, or download the rankings by average annual illicit outflows here.

See the full report here.