“Over the last eighteen months, Portugal has been swept by cases of corruption and hence respondents will have a greater propensity to respond positively,” the consultant’s Pedro Cunha said.


Portugal, trailed by India and Ukraine in the index, had 83 percent of its respondents agreeing that corruption and bribery were generalised practices throughout the country against 92 percent in Croatia in a figure that drops to 34 percent in Belgium, 11 percent in Finland and Denmark, the apparently corruption cleanest, seeing only 4 percent of respondents take such a position.


Staying in Portugal, 61 percent said that they considered corrupt practices impacted on company financial results with only 28 percent saying they work for a company with “very good” business ethics even though 25 percent said matters had improved over the last two years.