Venezuela is world's most corrupt country; Mexico most corrupt of the OECD

Venezuela topped the list of the most corrupt country of the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2016 – 2017, which ranks more than 130 countries. Several countries in Latin America, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Mexico, are among the most corrupt in the world according to the list.

The list is based on a poll of over 15,000 business leaders from 141 world economies. To determine the corruption index, the executives had to answer the following questions on a scale from one to seven:

• In your country, how common is illegal diversion of public funds to companies, individuals, or groups?
• In your country, how do you rate the ethical standards of politicians?
• In your country, how common is it for firms to make undocumented extra payments or bribes?

However, when taking into account only OECD member countries, Mexico topped the list as the most corrupt country.

According to the WEF, the reasons why Mexico topped the list are: organized crime, corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, tax policies and media manipulation.

“Basic education continues to be a significant weakness in Mexico's competitiveness when compared to the best ranked countries both regionally and globally. The quality of Mexico's education is improving extremely slowly. Furthermore, Mexico's economy has been affected by falling oil prices, the weak global economy, and a decrease in industrial manufacturing,” said the WEF in its report about Mexico.

Despite these setbacks, Mexico's overall competitiveness ranking improved by six spots, moving up to number 51 out of 138 countries.

The WEF also said that despite these problems Mexico “is still one of the most competitive countries in the region and is making improvements in some of the fundamental factors for future prosperity.”