An average 45 percent of financial flows out of Costa Rica are considered illicit.

This and other data compiled for hundreds of developing countries around the world by the nongovernmental research organization Global Financial Integrity (GFI) was detailed in a report released last week.

Illicit funds are estimated to comprise about 2.5 percent of incoming funds to Costa Rica.

In regional context, average illicit fund figures for other Central American countries are: El Salvador with 9 percent (outgoing) and 7.5 percent (incoming); Guatemala 9 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively; Honduras 31 percent and 28 percent; Nicaragua 13 percent and 9 percent; and Panama 16 percent and 307 percent.

The Global Financial Integrity (GFI) report, “Illicit Financial Flows to and from Developing Countries: 2005-2014,” concludes that the illicit flow of money to and from developing countries remains at high levels throughout the world.

By quantifying these illicit financial flows, the report aims to demonstrate how dirty money is “a challenge for economic and social progress in the developing world.”

“Over the period between 2005 and 2014, illicit financial flows (IFFs) likely accounted for about 14.1 to 24 percent of total developing country trade,” sad the report, which translates to an estimated range for total global IFFs of US$2 to $3.5 trillion in 2014.

And these illicit flows “likely grew at an average rate of between 8.5 percent and 10.1 percent a year over the 10-year period.”

The GFI measures such flows by analyzing two sources: deliberate misinvoicing in merchandise trade (the source of GFI’s low and high estimates as shown in the graphic), and leakages in the balance of payments (also known as “hot money flows”).

“Of those two sources, trade misinvoicing is the primary measurable means for shifting funds in and out of developing countries illicitly,” said GFI, who said fraudulent mis-invoicing of trade is responsible for an average of 87 percent of illicit financial outflows.