Uzbekistan climbs 5 places to rank 121th out of 180 countries in the 2023 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and was named one of the best improvers in the fight against corruption over the past 5-10 years, Transparency International said in a report on Tuesday.

Among the countries of Central Asia, only Kazakhstan is higher in the ranking.

The top country in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which includes 19 countries (including Uzbekistan), was Georgia - 49th place (on 53 points). Kazakhstan, with 39 points, is in 93rd position.

Belarus is in 98th place in the ranking (37 points), Ukraine is in 104th (36 points). Kyrgyzstan and Russia scored 26 points each and shared 141st place.

Tajikistan (20) and Turkmenistan (18) were ranked 162 and 170the, respectively.

The CPI, which measures how corrupt a country's public sector is perceived to be by its experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of zero to 100 where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

The 2022 edition of the CPI ranked 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives.

In its report, Transparency International found countries that violate civil liberties consistently score lower on the CPI. Complacency in fighting corruption exacerbates human rights abuses and undermines democracy, setting off a vicious spiral. As these rights and freedoms erode and democracy declines, authoritarianism takes its place, contributing to even higher levels of corruption.

According to Transparency International, the top-performing countries were Denmark (90), Finland (87) and New Zealand (85).

In contrast, the worst-performing countries were Syria and Venezuela with a corruption perceptions score of 13, followed by Somalia (180th place on 11 points).