Nepal has been ranked in 108th position out of 180 countries and territories in the Corruption Perceptions Index.

According to Corruption Perceptions Index 2023, an annual flagship publication of Transparency International, a global anti-corruption group based in Berlin, made public on Tuesday, Nepal made a slight improvement by climbing two positions in the global rankings. Nepal was ranked in the 110th position in 2022 and was 117th in 2021.

Transparency International uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is the most corrupt and 100 is the least corrupt. A score below 50 is considered to have a relatively higher level of corruption in a country, according to the anti-corruption advocacy body.

Nepal received 35 points in 2023, one point more than in 2022.

Despite some improvement in Nepal’s score, it remains in the category of countries with rampant corruption, Transparency International Nepal said in a statement.

In South Asia, Nepal has been ranked below Bhutan (26th), the Maldives (93rd) and India (93rd). Sri Lanka (115th), Pakistan (133rd), Bangladesh (149th) and Afghanistan (162nd) are the countries behind Nepal.

Nepal’s northern neighbour China has been ranked 76th with 42 points.

The CPI global average remains unchanged at 43 for the twelfth year in a row, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50. This indicates serious corruption problems, said Transparency International.

Denmark (90) tops the index for the sixth consecutive year, with Finland and New Zealand following closely with scores of 87 and 85, respectively. Due to well-functioning justice systems, these countries are also among the top scorers in the Rule of Law Index, according to the report.

Somalia (11), Venezuela (13), Syria (13), South Sudan (13) and Yemen (16) take the bottom spots in the index. They are all affected by protracted crises, mostly armed conflicts.