Most and Least Corrupt Countries in the World

The lowest level of corruption this year is in Denmark, while the highest levels are shared by North Korea and Somalia, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index published Wednesday.

MOSCOW, December 3 (Sputnik) — Overall economic growth is being undermined in countries where high levels of corruption are rampant, Transparency International stated in its Corruption Perceptions Index published Wednesday.

"The 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that economic growth is undermined and efforts to stop corruption fade when leaders and high level officials abuse power to appropriate public funds for personal gain," the chair of Transparency International Jose Ugaz was quoted as saying in an press release posted online.

"Corrupt officials smuggle ill-gotten assets into safe havens through offshore companies with absolute impunity," Ugaz added.

Ugaz has also called on the countries at the bottom of the list to change their anti-corruption policies and for the countries at the top to help the corruption-struck countries to tackle the problem.

According to the report, 175 countries were ranked, with more than 66 percent of them scoring below 50 on a scale of 0 to 100 and with 0 being the highest level of corruption.

This year Denmark came out on top with 92 points, while North Korea and Somalia shared the last place with a score of 8. Turkey lost 5 points, while Ivory Coast, Egypt and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gained 5 points.

The index shows that corruption is still a big problem for emerging economies. For instance, China's score, at 36, was 4 points lower than it received last year. The BRICS countries are also suffering from high corruption levels, with only 27 points attributed to Russia in 2014, compared to 28 in 2013.

The annual Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries based on opinion surveys and the perception of corruption levels by experts.

Corruption Perceptions Index 2014 is now LIVE. Denmark is 1st out of 175 countries http://t.co/kVewKKJRjy #CPI2014 pic.twitter.com/1nlhPzubzn

— Transparency Int'l (@anticorruption) 3 декабря 2014