The study came as New Delhi announced it would bring out a white paper on black money. Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday said the government will introduce a bill to strengthen anti-money laundering laws soon.
While $903 billion marks a drop from the $1.55 trillion that illicitly flowed out of the developing world in 2008, the study finds the decrease almost entirely attributable to the global financial crisis than any governance improvement or economic reforms.
"This is a breathtakingly large sum at a time when developing and developed countries alike are struggling to make ends meet," said GFI Director Raymond Baker. "This report should be a wake up call to world leaders that more must be done to address these harmful outflows."
Entitled "Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries over the Decade Ending 2009", the report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organization, tracks the amount of illegal capital flowing out of 157 developing countries from 2000 to 2009.
According to the report, the 20 biggest victims of illicit financial flows over the decade are: China $2.74 trillion, Mexico $504 billion, Russia $501 billion, Saudi Arabia $380 billion, Malaysia $350 billion, United Arab Emirates $296 billion, Kuwait $271 billion, Nigeria $182 billion, Venezuela $179 billion, Qatar $175 billion, Poland $162 billion, Indonesia $145 billion, the Philippines $142 billion, Kazakhstan $131 billion, India $128 billion, Chile $97.5 billion, Ukraine $95.8 billion, Argentina $95.8 billion, South Africa $85.5 billion and Turkey $79.1 billion.
Mukherjee told Indian parliament that tax treaties with 60 out of 75 countries were amended and this would enable the government to track black money. He added there were various estimates of black money available ranging from $500 billion to $1,900 billion.