China falls 20 spots in global graft perception ranking

Tokyo

CORRUPTION among public officials is a growing problem in Asia and other developing regions, with China sliding especially badly in this regard in the past year.

Even Singapore slipped slightly.

The Berlin-based global civil society body Transparency International (TI) said in its report on Wednesday that "economic growth is undermined and efforts to stop corruption fade when leaders and high-level officials abuse power to appropriate public funds for personal gain".

Its annual…