Georgia’s score on Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) fell by three points to 50 out of 100 (on a scale where 0 is the worst and 100 is the best result), its lowest level since 2013, according to the organization’s local branch, although it still ranks highest in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Out of 181 countries worldwide, Georgia is 56th, tied with Bahrain, Greece, and Jordan.
The Index measures the “vulnerability of a country’s public sector to corruption,” TI-Georgia said, noting that it shows that “petty bribery is not widespread in the country.” However, the index does not measure such complex forms of corruption as state capture and kleptocracy, which TI-Georgia identifies as the “main challenge” in Georgia.
In its accompanying analysis, Transparency International says Georgia demonstrates “how democratic backsliding directly fuels corruption risks.” The organization reviews Georgia’s Foreign Agents Law and Grants Law, which it says are “anti-democratic measures to criminalize legitimate NGO activity and brand independent voices as foreign agents.” It also examines authorities’ targeting of non-governmental and media organizations, as well as the opposition. “This is creating severely increased corruption risks and damaging Georgia’s society as a whole,” it concludes.
“In almost two-thirds of countries whose CPI scores have significantly declined since 2012, there has been a worrying pattern of restrictions on freedoms of expression, association, and assembly,” the organization notes. It mentions Georgia as an example of “politicized interference with NGO operations,” along with Indonesia, Peru, and Tunisia, where governments, it says, introduced “new laws to limit access to funding or even disband organisations that scrutinize and criticise them, often paired with smear campaigns and intimidation.”
Georgian Dream officials stressed that Georgia remains the highest-ranked country in the region, while dismissing that its score is the lowest since 2013.
“According to all objective assessments, Georgia is among the leading countries in various areas, one of which is the low level of corruption, where we outperform not only all [EU] candidate countries but also nearly ten EU member states,” Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said.
“The result is unequivocal: Georgia once again remains the undisputed leader in the region,” disputed Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, wrote on Facebook.
“Georgia outperforms seven EU member states and ten NATO member states. As for EU candidate countries, Georgia is, of course, ahead of all of them,” he added, urging Brussels to “stop the retaliation policy towards Georgia through disinformation campaigns.”
Georgia ranked highest score of 58 in 2018.
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