Criminals around the world pocket an estimated $2.1 trillion a year – or 3.6 percent of the world’s gross domestic product -- making crime one of the top 20 economies in the world, Reuters reported today, citing a senior United Nations official.

Yury Fedotov, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the situation might be getting worse and global action was needed to combat the problem, the Associated Press reported.

"No country can handle this problem alone,” Fedotov told reporters on the sidelines of an international conference on crime prevention.

Reuters said the $2.1 trillion figure had been calculated recently for the first time by UNODC and the World Bank, and was based on 2009 data.

Inside the 21st Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna, Fedotov said 2.4 million people were the victims of human trafficking and $40 billion was lost through corruption in developing countries every year.