India 4th largest in Asia for illicit money flows: Report

 

New Delhi: India is Asia’s fourth largest exporter of illicit capital with an estimated outflow of a whopping $104 billion between 2000 and 2008, according to a US-based think-tank which ranks China as the number one source of illegal money.

In its latest report on illicit money, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washing-ton-based think-tank, said Asia continues to produce the largest portion of illicit flows, almost half-trillion dollars in 2008 alone.

According to figures of illicit flow of money released by this think-tank, China tops the list and is several times that of India.

Between 2000 to 2008, GFI estimated that the outflow of illicit money from China was $2.2 trillion. Malaysia follows a distant second with $291 billion.

Philippines is ranked third with $109 billion, while both Indonesia and India are ranked fourth with $104 billion each, says the report “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2000-2009,” released On January 18.

On an average these five countries account for 96.5 percent of total illicit flows from Asia and 44.9 percent of flows out of all developing countries.

However, it said that these (Asia region compared to total developing world) shares have been declining; the top five Asian countries transferred 36.9 percent of illicit flows from all developing countries in 2008, down from 53.3 percent in 2000.

The report ranks countries according to magnitude of outflows with China ranking at the top followed by Russia ($427 billion), Mexico ($416 billion), Saudi Arabia ($302 billion) and Malaysia ($291 billion).

“India, which was the fifth largest exporter of illicit capital in the 2008 IFF report is now ranked 15th among developing countries,” the report said.

 

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