KATHMANDU, Feb 1: Nepal has ranked 110th among 180 countries and territories in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure widely used to assess the level of corruption in a country.

Although Nepal made a slight improvement by climbing seven positions, up from 117th position last year, in the global rankings, the country scored only 34 out of 100 in the report made public by the Transparency International (TI) on Tuesday. This makes Nepal a country with a mass public sector corruption.

Bhutan is considered to be the least corrupt country in South Asia. Nepal has been ranked below Bhutan (25th), the Maldives (85th), India (85th) and Sri Lanka (101st).  Pakistan (140th), Bangladesh (147th) and Afghanistan (150th) are the only countries behind Nepal in terms of the CPI.

The  CPI is an index which ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entrusted power for private gain". The index is published annually by Transparency International, a non-government organization based in Germany, since 1995In this year's CPI, Denmark has been listed as the least corrupt country with 90 points and Somalia as the most corrupt country with 12 points. In this index, a score of 100 indicates the cleanest country and a score of 0 the most corrupt, while a score below 50 is considered as a country with high corruption. This year's average score is 43 and corruption is a serious problem in two thirds of the world.

 
• Corruption
 
• Nepal