USD 25 B in Illicit Flows Syphoned Off from Bulgaria in 10 Years

Business » FINANCE | December 16, 2014, Tuesday // 11:58
Bulgaria: USD 25 B in Illicit Flows Syphoned Off from Bulgaria in 10 Years

A total USD 25 B were illicitly syphoned off from Bulgaria in the past 10 years, shows the report Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries 2003-2012 of the Global Financial Integrity (GFI) NGO.

Bulgaria ranks 33-rd in a list of 145 developing countries with an average of USD 2.535 per annum in illicit outflows. The sums were unrecorded and acquired through illicit activities.

The largest sums flowed out of Bulgaria in 2008 – USD 5.3 B and in 2007 – USD 4.6 B. The smallest were in 2010 – USD 730 M and in 2009 – USD 866 M.

In 2011 and 2012 the sums rose again – to USD 1.792 and USD 1.762, respectively.

The only EU member state ahead of Bulgaria on the list is Poland with an average of USD 5.321 B per year, ranking 17-th.

Right after Bulgaria ranks Latvia with an average of USD 2.49 B per year.

The global “champion” on the list is China, which is the leading source of illicit financial flows from developing countries for nine of the ten years of this study, followed by Russia.

GFI measures illicit financial outflows using two sources: outflows due to deliberate trade misinvoicing (GER) and outflows due to leakages in the balance of payments, also known as illicit hot money narrow outflows (HMN). The vast majority of illicit financial flows – 77.8% in the 10-year period covered in the report – are due to trade misinvoicing.

Asia continues to be the region of the developing world with the greatest volume of illicit financial flows, comprising 40.3% of the world total over the ten years of this study. It is followed by Developing Europe at 21%, the Western Hemisphere at 19.9%, MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) at 10.8%, and Sub-Saharan Africa at 8%.

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Tags: Global Financial Integrity, illegal, illicit flows, Bulgaria, money

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