Brazil in the 2024 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), registering its worst place since 2012. The country’s score was 34 points in 100, below the global average of 43 points, and three positions below the 2023 ranking. Result of corruption by experts and entrepreneurs, but also raises an essential question: what exactly this index measures?
The CPI, published by, does not measure corruption itself, but how it is perceived by market analysts and business leaders. Although perception is not a direct reflection of the level of corruption, it has concrete effects on the economy, institutional trust and governance. Well -positioned ranking countries tend to attract more investments and have more resilient institutions, while those who record falls face greater distrust and political risk.
In the case of Brazil, the worsening in the ranking is associated with factors that have weakened the mechanisms of control and transparency in recent years. Decisions of the reversed convictions, undermining trust in court and leading to the annulment of sentences. The secret budget allowed the allocation of billions of reais without proper tracking, increasing the opacity in public management.
The index is based on multiple sources, including research with executives, risk analysts and international organizations. It standardizes the data to create a comparable scale between countries and has become an important thermometer of institutional credibility. However, structural factors, such as level of economic development and democratic tradition, can influence answers, causing countries with more solid institutions to seem less corrupt, even without a proportional reduction in corruption practice.
If the perception rate of corruption measures perception and not objective corruption, why does it matter? Because perception influences trust in institutions, economics and. When corruption is seen as endemic, there is a cycle of institutional distrust that can result in less civic participation, investment escape and weakening public policies. We can draw a parallel with: even if crime rates decrease, if the population does not feel safe, there is an impact on everyday life, consumption and the economy. Similarly, a country that improves its control mechanisms can, paradoxically, have a worsening perception of corruption, because more cases are exposed and discussed.
The index is an essential tool for understanding trends and comparing countries, but should be complemented with objective metrics, such as the number of investigations and convictions for corruption, the quality of audits and the transparency of public spending, the adoption of public and private sector and the population’s access to information on government contracts.
More than recovering positions in a global index, Brazil’s challenge is to restore society’s confidence in the state. For this, it is necessary to combine efficient supervision with strategies to strengthen public integrity, ensuring that the perception of not a reflection of impunity, but of the country’s ability to seriously face it.
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