Islamabad, Jan 24 (IANS) Pakistan ranked 120 out of 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2019 released by Transparency International on Thursday, slipping by three spots from the previous year’s ranking despite increased anti-corruption efforts.
On a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), Pakistan was assigned a score of 32, a point lower than its score of 33 on the 2018 index and well below the global average of 43, Dawn news reported citing the figures released on Thursday.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives.
According to Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) Chairman Sohail Muzaffar, on clarification sought against the lowering of Islamabad’s score by one point on CPI 2019, the Transparency International Secretariat explained that many countries have not performed well this year.
Many developed countries including Canada, France, the UK and Denmark have scored less than last year, though Denmark attained the first rank on CPI 2019.
In the index, the average score for Asia-Pacific was 45 out of 100, showing Afghanistan as ‘highly corrupt’ with a score of 16.
New Zealand was on the top of the ranking in the region with a score of 87 followed by Singapore ranked fourth with a score of 85.
–IANS
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