The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is prepared by the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI), based on a survey of managers in 174 countries. It is intended to measure the spread of corruption, and the mechanisms in place to combat corruption in the public sector.
The cleanest countries in the world as usual are Denmark and New Zealand, with some of the most corrupt being Somalia and North Korea, according to the results.
Austria scored 72 out of a possible 100 points, up from a value of 69 points in 2013. This marks the first time since 2006 that Austria has improved its results, when the country ranked in 10th position, but slipped in subsequent years.
Great Britain, Belgium and Ireland also beat Austria, however France dropped into 26th position, on par with Estonia and Qatar.
Italy and Greece placed towards the bottom of European countries in 69th place, along with Senegal and Swaziland.
The report pointed to a rise in reports of corruption in Turkey, which suffered the year's biggest fall in rank, and low rankings for the major emerging economies known collectively as the BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Transparency says that because corruption is illegal and secretive, it cannot be empirically measured. So instead it collates surveys from the World Bank, African Development Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit and other bodies.
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