Transparency International: Progress in fight against corruption has stopped in Armenia

The 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published Tuesday by Transparency International, shows that most countries have made little or no progress in fighting corruption in the public sector. The global average of the CPI value remains unchanged at 43 for the twelfth year in a row. More than two-thirds of the countries have CPI values below 50, which indicates the existence of serious corruption problems.

Armenia's CPI value in 2023 has increased by 1 point compared to last year and is equal to 47 (in 2022 it was 46 points) on a scale from 0 (absolutely corrupt) to 100 (absolutely clean). Considering the fact that the size of the standard error of Armenia’s 2023 CPI measurement, which is equal to 2.54 (in 2022 it was equal to 2.47), is greater than the increase in the CPI value (1 point), it can be argued that this change is not statistically significant or within the statistical error.

As noted in Transparency International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia regional analysis: "In the two years following the 2018 Velvet Revolution, Armenia (47) experienced significant democratic and anti-corruption reforms. However, progress against corruption has stalled primarily due to the limited implementation of these new measures. Despite facing cha security threats – like many countries in the region – Armenia has the potential to navigate such difficulties and turn strong policies into better control of corruption.”

A respective graph shows the CPI values of Armenia, from 2012 to 2023.

In the 2023 CPI ranking table which includes 180 countries, Armenia is 62nd (in 2022, Armenia shared the 63rd to 64th places with Romania).

As can be seen, Armenia is not even in the middle ranks among the Council of Europe countries. This means that Armenia still has a lot to do to make real progress in the fight against corruption.

As in the previous three years, Armenia's CPI value in 2023 (47) is even higher than the world average CPI value which, as in the past two years, is equal to 43.

At the same time, it is lower than the CPI value (50), which, according to anticorruption experts, is a serious issue in countries with CPI values. Also, it exceeds the 2023 CPI values of Armenia’s neighboring countries (except Georgia) and of all other Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan).

As a result, except for Georgia, which ranks higher than Armenia in the 2023 CPI world ranking table (in which it shares 49th to 52nd places with its 53 CPI points), all the other aforementioned countries rank much lower than Armenia in the same ranking table. In particular, among Armenia’s other neighbors, Turkey (34) shares the 115th to 120th places, Iran (24)—149th to 153rd places, and Azerbaijan (23)—154th to 157th places. And among the other EAEU countries, Kazakhstan (39) ranks 93rd to 96th, Belarus (37)—98th to 103rd, and Russia and Kyrgyzstan (26 points each)—141st to 144th.