Financial Transparency Coalition

The report explains illicit capital flight, how it happens, its magnitude and its consequences for development, measures taken so far and measures needed to end it. It also includes a specific chapter on capital flight from Africa and presents illustrative case studies from Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. These are written by Attiya Waris from Tax Justice Network Africa and by the Budget Working Group of Policy Forum in Tanzania.

WASHINGTON, DC – Egypt is losing more than US$6 billion per year—US$57.2 billion in total from 2000 to 2008— to illicit financial activities and official government corruption, writes Global Financial Integrity (GFI) economist, Karly Curcio, in a new weblog published today at www.financial taskforce.org. The piece "Egypt too? There Goes the Neighborhood" uses numbers from GFI’s recently released report, "Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2000-2009." The report, authored by GFI Lead Economist Dev Kar and Ms. Curcio, lists illicit capital flight numbers for all developing countries from 2000-2008, including Egypt.

Egypt Losses $6 Billion Per Year in Illicit Outflows; Illicit Outflows from MENA Growing Faster than Any Other Region Reverberations from the violent protests in Tunisia are knocking on Egypt’s door. On Wednesday, the Egyptian authorities threatened “immediate” arrest for any public gatherings or protests in response to a massive march in opposition to the current leadership, President Hosni Mubarak. “No provocative movements or protest gatherings or organizing marches or demonstrations will be allowed,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. According to the New York Times, on Wednesday some protesters persevered as they chanted slogans at hundreds of...

Mexico and Venezuela Lead Region with Most Illicit Outflows The Center for International Policy's (CIP) Global Financial Integrity program (GFI) released a new report this week that estimates the quantity and patterns of illicit financial flows coming out of developing countries. The report, "Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries, 2000-2009," (PDF) finds that approximately $6.5 trillion was removed from the developing world from 2000 through 2008, averaging $725 billion to $810 billion per year. Most notable for Latin America, the new GFI report, authored by Dev Kar and Karly Curcio, places both Mexico...