Crime generates an estimated $2.1 trillion in global annual proceeds -- or 3.6 percent of the world's gross domestic product -- and the problem may be growing, a United Nations official said on Monday, Reuters reported.

"It makes the criminal business one of the largest economies in the world, one of the top 20 economies," said Yury Fedotov, head of the U.N. 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 World Bank, based on the data for 2009.

Fedotov said that annually up to $40 billion is lost through corruption in developing countries, and illicit incomes from human trafficking amounts to $32 billion every year.

"According to some estimates, at any one time, 2.4 million people suffer the misery of human trafficking, a shameful crime of modern day slavery," he said.

Criminal groups have shown "impressive adaptability" to law enforcement actions and new profit opportunities, a senior U.S. official said.

(China.org.cn April 25, 2012)

據路透社報道，周一，聯合國的一名官員表示，犯罪活動的全球年收入約達2.1萬億美元，占全世界國內生產總值的3.6%，該問題可能會進一步惡化。

聯合國毒品和犯罪辦事處處長尤里·費多托夫說：“這使得違法生意成為世界上最大的經濟體之一，位列20強。”他還說，該問題是對安全和經濟發展的危險。

最近，聯合國毒品和犯罪辦事處和世界銀行用2009年的數據首次算出了這一數字。

費多托夫說，每年發展中國家因腐敗損失400億美元，販賣人口產生的非法收入每年高達320億美元。

他說：“據某些估算顯示，在任一時期，240萬人受害于販賣人口活動，這是可恥的現代社會販奴行為。”

一名美國高級官員稱，犯罪組織對執法行動和新的賺錢機會表現出“驚人的適應力”。