Malta slips two places on enlarged corruption index

Malta has slipped two places in the 2011 global corruption index, published in Brussels this morning.

The country retained last year's score of 5.6 out of 10 in the survey, which this year includes five more countries, bringing the total to 183. This means that Malta's perceived corruption remained at the same level as last year - perceived the 39th least corrupt

According to the survey, based on assessments and data from various independent sources, the least corrupt country in this year's ranking is New Zealand, surpassing for the first time Denmark which always topped the ranking in past years.

On the other hand, Afghanistan and Myanmar share second to last place with a score of 1.5, with Somalia and North Korea - measured for the first time - coming in last with a score of one.

The CPI scores countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption and 10, low levels. This year, two thirds of countries covered by the index were given scores less than five - which means they are considered significantly corrupt.