Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries ... - culturaRSC.com

17. Adjusting the outflow estimates for inflation or for private sector flows marginally alters theregional shares found previously. Chart 4 shows the shares of cumulative illicit outflows fromthe various regions of the developing world over the decade ending 2010 under the HMN+GERmethod. We note that Asia still remains the main driver of illicit outflows from developingcountries regardless of the method of estimation. On a cumulative basis, the regionaccounted for 61.2 percent of total outflows, mostly due to massive outflows from mainlandChina and India. The Western Hemisphere follows at 15.6 percent, with the Middle East andNorth Africa (MENA) at 9.9 percent. The MENA region has a smaller share than the WesternHemisphere in this study compared to the 2011 Update due to the fact that Algeria, Iran,and Iraq have not fully reported the balance of payments data necessary for the HMN+GERmethod. Developing Europe follows MENA in share size, making up 7.0 percent of illicit flows,with the balance flowing out of Africa (6.3 percent). The relative increase in outflows fromAfrica can be mainly attributed to a larger number of countries for which we were able tocollect basic data on the balance of payments and bilateral trade flows. The relative shares aresubject to the caveat that restricted data availability on important countries of certain regionsmay understate the regional shares and overstate others.Chart 4. Illicit Flows in Real Terms 2001-2010; Regional Shares,-./0%1"%2334540%63789%4:%;