New Zealand has maintained its ranking as the least corrupt country in a report from an international anti-corruption group.
Transparency International has based its findings on surveys of how corrupt the public sector is perceived to be in 180 countries, Radio New Zealand reported on Wednesday.
Denmark was second and Singapore third.
Fragile states which are scarred by conflict are the lowest ranked countries, the report said. Afghanistan is seen as doing only slightly
better than Somalia. The group said corruption remains a widespread problem, with no region of the world immune.
Transparency International's New Zealand chairman, Gerald McGhie,said on Wednesday that a very high level of trust exists in New Zealand.
He said many people who travel in Australia are amazed at that country's heavy level of bureaucracy, which demonstrates a lower level of trust than in New Zealand.
McGhie said the survey measures citizens' perception of corruption and is not based on hard data.
New Zealand will need to continue to work hard to maintain its perceived position as the least corrupt country in the world, the State
Services Commissioner said on Wednesday.
New Zealand topped the anti-corruption index part of a Transparency International report, released on Wednesday.
The 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index scored 180 countries on a scale of zero to 10 -- with zero being perceived to be highly corrupt and 10 to have low levels of corruption. New Zealand scored 9.4. New Zealand's State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie said the result was excellent for New Zealanders and for the public sector.