Foreign direct investment from China has given a major boost to many economies around the world and, indeed, luring some of that funding to Ireland was one of the reasons President Michael D Higgins was here earlier this month.

But one area Beijing will be keen to cut back on, especially as part of its anti-corruption campaign, is that of illicit outflows of money exiting China.

According to a report from Washington-based Global Financial Integrity, capital leaving the country illegally hit $249.57 billion (€202.2 billion) in 2012, which is more than anywhere else in the developing world.

The cumulative loss from China between 2003 and 2012 from outflows including fraud, corruption, tax evasion and crime, came to $1.25 trillion (€1 trillion).

As a continent, Asia accounted for 40.3 per cent of unauthorised financial flows from the developing world during the period.

While the data summons images of corrupt officials with suitcases bulging with cash, most illicit outflows were in reality due to trade misinvoicing, where traders underinvoice exports and overinvoice imports as a way of moving money offshore.