India in corrupt top five

Hong Kong, March 8 (AP): India is the fourth most corrupt country in Asia while graft in China poses the biggest global threat because of the country?s growing economic influence, a consulting firm said today in a report.

Other countries which come at the bottom of the annual graft rankings by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Limited include the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.

Singapore is the least corrupt, followed by Japan and Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

The report said Indonesia is Asia?s most corrupt nation, ranking 9.25 on a scale of zero to 10. ?The issue of corruption could make or break Indonesia,? the report said

The firm said the Philippines, which is ranked number 2 on the graft list with a score of 8.9, needs to beef up its anti-corruption forces. There is a backlog of 2,000 cases in the country?s anti-graft court, the report said.

Vietnam is number 3 on the list because corruption is ?rampant in powerful state-controlled companies and government ministries?, it added.

India is fourth partly because the country?s ?suffocating bureaucracy? creates plenty of opportunities for payoffs to cut through red tape, the report claimed.

The report also noted that corruption is so bad in China that communist leaders have been warning that the problem could upset social stability and derail the economy.