MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile and Uruguay less corrupt in Latam; other Mercosur members not so clean

Argentina is the worst ranked Mercosur full member

Chile and Uruguay are the least corrupt countries in Latinamerica, while Paraguay and Venezuela are at the other extreme, according to the latest ‘Corruption Perceptions’ Index’ from Transparency International released this week.

According to the TI report Chile ranks 22 and Uruguay 25, while the other two Mercosur full members Brazil and Argentina occupy positions 73 and 100.

The top place of this year’s ‘corruption perceptions index’ includes, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Singapore, Norway, Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and Canada. UK is ranked 16.

In the Americas Canada is the best positioned, 10 out of 183, with the US ranked 24.

The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. A country/territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 10 means that a country is perceived as very clean.

A country's rank indicates its position relative to the other countries/territories included in the index.

The survey is based on data collected from thirteen international institutions among which the World Bank; Asian, African and Latinamerican development banks and the World Economic Forum. The analysis covers 183 countries of which 32 from Latinamerica and the Caribbean.

The three most corrupt-perceived countries are Somalia, North Korea, both ranked 182 and before them Myanmar and Afghanistan in position 180.

Following is the position and score for Latinamerican and Caribbean countries.

1) Chile, 7.2 (22)
2) Uruguay 7.0 (25)
3) Costa Rica 4.8 (50)
4) Cuba: 4,2 (61)
5) Brazil 3,8 (73)
6) Colombia 3,4 (80); El Salvador: 3,4 (80) and Peru: 3,4 (80)
7) Panama 3,3 (86)
8) Argentina 3,0 (100) and Mexico, 3.0 (100)
9) Bolivia: 2,8 (118)
10) Ecuador 2,7 (120) and Guatemala 2,7 (120)
11) Dominican Rep.2,6 (129) and Honduras 2..6 (129)
12) Nicaragua 2.5 (134)
13) Paraguay 2.2 (154)
14) Venezuela 1,9 (172)