Barbados has moved up a notch in the recently released Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2020 report. The jurisdiction has taken 1st place as the least corrupt country within the Caribbean, 3rd place among the Latin American and Caribbean countries and 29th globally among 180 countries.

The CPI scores these 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and businesspeople. A scale from 0-100 is used, with 100 being very clean and 0 being highly corrupt. Barbados received a score of 64 out of 100.

The report noted that more than two-thirds of countries normally score below 50, as most countries have made little to no progress in tackling corruption in nearly a decade. It also spoke to the current health crisis being experienced globally and drew a correlation between COVID-19 and corruption relative to the global response.

Following behind Barbados in the Caribbean were The Bahamas, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica and Grenada.

The top five countries (least corrupt) in the CPI were Denmark (rank: 1st; score: 88), New Zealand (rank: 1st; score: 88), Finland (rank: 3rd; score: 85), Singapore (rank: 3rd; score: 85 and Sweden (rank: 3rd; score: 85). The bottom five (highly corrupt) were Venezuela, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and South Sudan.

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