BERLIN, Aug 28: Finland is the world’s least corrupt country while Bangladesh and Nigeria are the most corrupt, according to the new Transparency International corruption perceptions index published on Wednesday.

The annual TI corruption perceptions index reports public sector corruption. A separate index documents the propensity of private companies from top exporting nations to bribe in exporting markets.

Finland was again ranked the least corrupt country of the 102 states surveyed for corruption. It was followed by Denmark and New Zealand tied for second place, Iceland third, followed by Singapore and Sweden which both received the same ranking.

Worst rated was Bangladesh, followed by Nigeria as second worst, Angola, Madagascar and Paraguay tied at third from the bottom and Indonesia and Kenya jointly ranked as the fourth most corrupt nations.

“Political elites and their cronies continue to take kickbacks at every opportunity. Hand in glove with corrupt business people they are trapping whole nations in poverty and hampering sustainable development,” said Peter Eigen, chairman of Berlin-based Transparency International (TI), in a statement.

Transparency International - a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization - ranked the countries based on 15 surveys from nine independent institutions. The ranking relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption seen by business people and risk analysts.—dpa