Costa Rica is best at fighting corruption

Costa Rica dropped to 41st place globally, one position lower than last year in the Corruption Perception Index, published by Transparency International.

On the other hand, with a score of 58, Costa Rica scored three more points than last year, while clearly maintaining its standing as the least corrupt country in Central America.

Panama stayed in second place, but fell from 72d position worldwide to 87th, mainly because of the “Papers” scandal.

Nicaragua is last in the ishtmus, in 145th place.

Globally, Denmark and New Zealand share the highest scores in corruption perception, while Somalia is last among 176 countries.

Press freedom, access to information about public expenditure, strong standards of integrity for public officials, and an independent judiciary, are some of the criteria used in the ranking (numbers in brackets indicate global position).

1            Costa Rica (41)
2             Panama (87)
3            El Salvador (95)
4            Honduras (123)
5            Guatemala (136)
6            Nicaragua (145)