Turkey falls behind in global corruption index

Corruption is feared to be worsening in Turkey, China and other fast-growing economies, an anti-graft watchdog warned on Dec. 3, also urging the world's banking centers to help combat sleaze and money-laundering.

Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranked Sudan, North Korea and Somalia as the worst offenders and Denmark, New Zealand and Finland as the most squeaky clean.

It pointed to a rise in reports of corruption in Turkey, which suffered the year's biggest fall in rank, and low rankings for the major emerging economies known collectively as the BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The Berlin-based group's table is the most widely used gauge of corruption by governments, police, court systems, political parties and bureaucracies, a scourge it says undermines development and deepens poverty.

Transparency International ranked 175 countries on a scale of 0-100, where zero means very corrupt and 100 signifies very clean. This year the average score was 43, and two thirds of countries were below 50.

'Crackdown on free speech'

Turkey slumped the most, dropping five points to a CPI score of 45. China was down four points to 36, the same decline as Rwanda, Malawi and Angola.

The group said that Turkey, rocked by graft allegations on top government officials last year, has since seen "a crackdown on free speech" with journalists persecuted and arrested.

"With a series of investigations into bribery and corruption charges against people considered close to the government, the general perception of corruption has increased substantially," it said.

Two investigations inculpating four ex-ministers and businessmen close to the government were...