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Graphic shows selected data from Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2018.
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POLITICS

U.S. drops out of global corruption index top 20

By Mike Tyler

January 29, 2019 - The United States has dropped out of the top 20 “cleanest” countries for the first time since 2011, according to an annual survey released by global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

More than two-thirds of countries scored below 50 in this year’s report, with an average score of just 43.

The United States had a score of 71, down from 75 in 2017.

The four-point drop was called a “red flag” by the Berlin-based organisation, and comes at a time when the U.S. is experiencing “threats to its system of checks and balances” and an “erosion of ethical norms at the highest levels of power.”

In a cross-analysis of its survey with global democracy data, TI said a link could be drawn between corruption and the health of a democracy.

Full democracies scored an average of 75 on the corruption index, flawed democracies averaged 49, and autocratic regimes averaged 30, the organisation said.

Denmark and New Zealand had the best scores on the CPI in 2018, scoring 88 and 87, while Somalia, Syria and South Sudan were at the bottom, with scores of 10, 13 and 13.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 29/01/2019; STORY: Graphic News
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