Crime is one of the world's 'top 20 economies': UN

Crime generates an estimated US$2.1 trillion (S$2.6 trillion) in global annual proceeds - or 3.6 per cent of the world's gross domestic product - and the problem may be growing, a senior United Nations official said on Monday.

"It makes the criminal business one of the largest economies in the world, one of the top 20 economies," said Mr Yury Fedotov, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), describing it as a threat to security and economic development.

The figure was calculated recently for the first time by the UNODC and the World Bank, based on data for 2009, and no comparisons are yet available, Mr Fedotov added.

He said up to US$40 billion is lost through corruption in developing countries annually and illicit income from human trafficking amounts to US$32 billion every year.

Organised crime, illicit trafficking, violence and corruption are "major impediments" to the Millennium Development Goals, a group of targets set by the international community in 2000 to seek to improve health and reduce poverty among the world's poorest people by 2015, Mr Fedotov said.

Principal deputy assistant secretary Brian Nichols, of the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said criminal groups have shown "impressive adaptability" to law enforcement actions and to new profit opportunities.

"Today, most criminal organisations consist of loose and informal networks that often converge when it is convenient and engage in a diverse array of criminal activities," he said, adding that terrorist groups in some cases were turning to crime to help fund their operations.

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