Malta dropped a few rankings on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) from last year.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

For the year 2021, Malta had a score of 54, ranking the country in 49^th place out of 180 countries.

In this year's release index, which is for the year 2022, Malta's score was 51, and the country dropped in the rankings to 54^th place.

Two other countries are also in 54^th place - Saudi Arabia and Rwanda.

The index read the following about Malta: "Malta (score of 51) continues its downward CPI trend. Recommendations from the public inquiry into the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia are yet to be implemented in legislation, with continued concerns for media freedom and political interference in public media and for the fight against organised crime. A state of impunity persists with no convictions in cases of high-level corruption. Greater independence and resourcing of the Maltese justice system is needed to uphold the rule of law."

In terms of Malta's region - 'Western Europe & EU', Transparency International says: "with an average score of 66 out of 100, Western Europe and the European Union (EU) is once again the top-scoring region in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)." However, "progress has stagnated in the majority of countries for more than a decade. Across Western Europe and the EU, the changing security landscape since Russia's fullscale invasion of Ukraine and a looming recession both demand robust responses from governments. However, undue influence over decision-making, poor enforcement of integrity safeguards and threats to the rule of law are undermining governments' effectiveness. The region is at a crossroads. To overcome the current crises and deliver progress for the people, decision-makers need to go beyond piecemeal anti-corruption measures."

"The 2022 CPI reveals that anti-corruption efforts have stagnated in more than half of countries for more than a decade. Out of 31 countries in the region, only six have improved their scores while seven have declined. Top scorers in 2022 were Denmark (CPI score: 90), Finland (87) and Norway (84). Worst performers were again Romania (46), Bulgaria (43) and Hungary (42). Ten countries have recorded their lowest-ever scores, including United Kingdom (73), which has dropped five points since last year."

The countries ranked lower than Malta in the EU are Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

As for the wider world, the CPI global average remains unchanged at 43 for the eleventh year in a row, and more than two-thirds of countries have a serious problem with corruption, scoring below 50.