Dollar 2.5 billion siphoned off from Pakistan in a decade
Forex Research – Daily US Dollar Report
Crime, corruption and tax evasion have cost the developing world nearly $6 trillion over the past decade, a financial watchdog said in a new report. Mentioning Pakistan, it said $2.5 billion was siphoned out of the country from 2003 to 2010.
Giving breakdown, it said $44 million was illegally transferred abroad in 2003, $202 million in 2005, $505 million in 2007, $728 million in 2008, $298 million in 2009 and $729 million in 2010.
Total illicit outflows increased by 11 percent from the prior year, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based group that campaigns for financial accountability, said in its latest report released on Monday.
“Astronomical sums of dirty money continue to flow out of the developing world and into offshore tax havens and developed country banks,” said Raymond Baker, the GFI director.“Developing countries are hemorrhaging more and more money at a time when rich and poor nations alike are struggling to spur economic growth. This report should be a wake-up call to world leaders that more must be done to address these harmful outflows,”he said.
All the countries in the top 10, which this year saw India, Nigeria, the Philippines and Nigeria join the ranks, face significant problems with corruption, and in most there are vast gaps between rich and poor citizens as well as internal security problems.
The report said that more donors have frozen aid to Uganda over corruption.Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies are focusing on ways to crack down on money laundering, bank secrecy and tax loopholes to prevent funds stolen from public coffers or earned through criminal activity from depleting the budgets of developing countries.
The sums are so huge that for every dollar in foreign direct aid, $10 leaves developing countries. The report said the 10 countries with the highest measured illicit money outflows between 2001 and 2010 were, in order: China ($2.74 trillion), Mexico ($476 billion), Malaysia ($285 billion), Saudi Arabia ($210 billion), Russia ($152 billion), Philippines ($138 billion), Ngeria ($129 billion), India ($123 billion), Indonesia ($109 billion), UAE ($107 billion), Iraq ($63.6 billion), South Africa ($83.9 billion), Thailand ($64.3 billion), Costa Rice ($63.7 billion), and Qatar ($56.1 billion).
Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 November 1999 05:00Thursday, 20 December 2012 14:57
