Paises corruptos sao instaveis economicamente...

Algumas licoes para o Brasil, dessas evidencias prima facie sobre o papel desestabilizador da corrupcao sobre o ambiente economico?
Helas, na republiqueta dos companheiros estamos condenados a continuar altamente instaveis economicamente.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Greece and Italy are Listed Among Corrupt in Europe

By MELISSA EDDY

The New York Times, December 5, 2012

Greece is considered Europe’s most corrupt country, ranking roughly on par with Colombia and Swaziland in an annual global survey of perceived corruption released Wednesday.

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John Kolesidis/Reuters

Protesters attended a rally against austerity measures and corruption in Athens in September.

Transparency International, a corruption watchdog, ranked Greece 94th out of 176 countries in the 2012 corruption perceptions index, which surveys economic experts about the perceived level of public sector corruption. Last year, Greece ranked 80th.

Using a scale introduced for this year’s report, Transparency International ranked the countries between zero, which is “highly corrupt,” and 100, for “very clean.” Two-thirds of the 176 countries surveyed scored below 50, including Italy and Greece from among the 17 members of the European Union that use the euro. Italy ranked 72nd.

Ireland, Spain and Portugal earned scores above 50 but dropped in the rankings compared with 2011, underlining the perception that economic stability was linked to good government.

“We believe that corruption in the public sector frequently goes hand in hand with a failure of institutions,” said Edda Müller, who heads the German branch of Transparency International, based in Berlin. “At the same time, we see, not only in Europe, a high amount of corruption points to a lack of ethics on the part of politicians.”

She cited the list of Greeks believed to hold accounts in a Swiss bank as a possible influence. It included a former culture minister, several employees of the Finance Ministry and a number of business leaders. As finance minister of France, Christine Lagarde in 2010 handed the list to the Greek government in an effort to help it crack down on tax evasion.

A Greek publication released the list in October, raising questions among the country’s international lenders about whether the government was actively bolstering its tax collection, one of several promises the country made to secure billions of euros in aid. Finance ministers of the countries using the euro meet again next week to decide whether to disburse the next round of aid to Greece.

Denmark, Finland and New Zealand ranked as the least corrupt countries, with Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Britain all included among the 20 least corrupt. The United States climbed in the rankings to 19th from 24th in 2011.

Somalia remained the world’s most corrupt country, the survey showed, just above North Korea and Afghanistan, all largely failed states where poverty and social chaos result in the repression of human rights, the organization said.

A version of this article appeared in print on December 6, 2012, on page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: Greece and Italy Are Listed Among Corrupt in Europe.