(ANSA) - Italy has made progress in fighting corruption but is still perceived as one of the least clean countries in the 25-member European Union, according to a survey issued by a top anti-corruption watchdog on Tuesday.
The annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI), issued by the Berlin-based Transparency International, gave Italy five points out of 10 and ranked it 40th out of 159 countries. This was an improvement on last year, when Italy was 42nd with 4.8 points.
But the country was nonetheless perceived as one of the most corrupt in the EU, ranking 18th out of 25 together with Hungary. Poland fared the worst while Finland was top with 9.6 points. Finland was only a whisker behind Iceland, which claimed
the number one slot on the index with 9.7 points.
Bangladesh and Chad were at the very bottom, both with 1.7 points.
The United Kingdom was equal 11th with the Netherlands while the United States was 17th. Russia, meanwhile, dropped to 126th place. More than two-thirds of the countries surveyed were given less than five points.
Peter Eigen, the chairman of Transparency International, said in the report that "corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it. The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations into a cycle of misery," he said.
The index is based on surveys of public officials, analysts and businesspeople. Transparency International is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to increasing government accountability and curbing both international and national
corruption.
