bne:Chart – Poorer CEE/CIS nations are fertile ground for public-sector graft

By bne IntelliNews March 20, 2015

Henry Kirby in London -

 

Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) measures the perceived levels of corruption in different countries across a number of studies. Comparing the results of the 2014 CPI with per-capita GDP across Central and Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Indepedent States (CEE/CIS) reveals a clear correlation between poverty and corruption.

As the bne:Chart shows, countries with low per-capita GDPs appear to suffer higher CPI scores. The same trend exists when GDP is held up alongside the International Centre for Asset Recovery’s Anti-Money Laundering Index, which measures a country’s propensity for money laundering and terrorism financing.

The bottom-right quadrant of the chart represents countries that enjoy a high level of GDP per capita as well as a low score for corruption perceptions. Not a single non-EU country occupies it, while only two EU member states – Romania and Bulgaria – fall outside of it.

The undesirable top-left quadrant represents high perceptions of corruption and money laundering combined with low GDP per capita. It is occupied almost exclusively by Western Balkan states whose post-Soviet redevelopment was hindered by drawn-out conflicts in the 1990s, and CIS countries that have little scope for any real political opposition to their current government.

The top-right quadrant of the chart represents countries that enjoy a higher income alongside high perceptions of corruption. The two notable occupants of this area are Russia and Kazakhstan – both big oil and gas producers.

Use the bne:Chart below to compare CPI and AML scores with GDP per capita. A high CPI score usually denotes low corruption perceptions. For the purpose of consistency across both indexes we have recalculated it so that high CPI scores denote high perceptions of corruption.

 

 

 

 

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