Romania ranks 66th out of 174 countries around the world for corruption, according to the annual Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International. It’s an improvement on last year, when Romania ranked 75 with a score of 3.6 out of 10. This year the country scored 44 out of a best possible 100, an 11 percent improvement, and shared a score and ranking with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Although improved, Romania is still one of the EU’s most corrupt, according to the Index which measures public perceptions of corruption levels. Only three EU countries ranked lower, Italy – 72, Bulgaria – 75 and Greece – 94. Non-EU neighboring Balkan states fared slightly worse than Romania in general, Macedonia – 69, Bosnia & Herzegovina – 72, Montenegro – 75 and Serbia ranked 80. Croatia, which is due to join the EU in 2013, ranked higher than Romania, at number 62 in the world.

Scandinavia is the least corrupt place on the planet, according to the index. Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway all ranked in the top ten with scores of 85 or above. Denmark and Finland shared first place with New Zealand, all scoring 90 out of a possible 100 for squeaky clean governments and public sectors. Next came Sweden, scoring 88, followed by Singapore, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Canada and The Netherlands.

The bottom three were Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia, sharing 174th place with a score of 8 out of 100. The bottom third of the table included a fairly even mix of Latin American, Asian and African states. The full report is here.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com

(photo source: print screen)