Posted on 12 Dec 2012
According to the HMN+GER method, the ten countries with the largest outflows of illicit capital (in declining order of magnitude) were China, Mexico, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates. Total outflows from China over the decade ending 2010 (US$2,742 billion) exceeded total cumulative outflows from all other nine countries on the list (US$1,728 billion). The new rankings imply that illicit flows impact more people more adversely than what the previous IFF reports indicated. This is because the CED+GER rankings included Kuwait, Venezuela, Qatar, and Poland among the top ten countries with the largest outflows. However, these countries have relatively much higher income and fewer people living on less than US$2 a day, compared to the Philippines, Nigeria, India, and Indonesia which are ranked among the top ten countries under the HMN+GER methodology. Hence, the revised rankings do a much better job of reflecting the adverse impact of illicit flows on poverty compared to the CED+GER method.