27/10/2010
Perceived corruption index: France falls in rankings
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Transparency International on 26 October published its index of perceived corruption (IPC) 2010, which ranks 178 countries on the basis of the perceived level of corruption in their public and political classes. In the 2010 rankings, nearly three quarters of countries evaluated have a score of less than 5, on a scale from 0 (high level of perceived corruption) to 10 (high level of perceived integrity). France, with a rating of 6.8, has lost one more place, and now falls to 25th place in the rankings. It remains below several European countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. In the IPC 2010, Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore are top of the rankings, with scores of 9.3. Unstable governments, which are often the result of past conflicts, continue to dominate the low end of the rankings. Afghanistan and Myanmar share second-to-last place with scores of 1.4, while the bottom place goes to Somalia at 1.1. Real changes in perception can be seen for several countries. There has been an improvement in 2010 compared with the 2009 scores for Bhutan, Chile, Ecuador, Macedonia (ARYM), Gambia, Jamaica, Kuwait and Qatar. Meanwhile, the scores have declined for the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Madagascar, Niger and the United States. France, with a score of 6.8, has fallen one place to 25th in the rankings. There are several reasons that international experts and businesses surveyed continue to have a relatively poor image of the French political class. Between January 2009 and September 2010, French news was marked by several scandals, which were widely reported outside France as well.
