For the second year in a row, Venezuela has been dubbed the world’s most miserable economy.
In a Bloomberg survey, the country earned the distinction thanks to a high jobless rate as well as spiking inflation. Indeed, the country has an annual average inflation rate of 98.3% for 2015, along with 6.8% unemployment, according to the publication.
The future appears to be grim going forward, too. Per Bloomberg:
With no end in sight for Venezuela’s economic woes—estimates in Bloomberg surveys predict consumer price growth of 152 percent and joblessness averaging 7.7 percent—economists polled for the 2016 index see it remaining the unhappiest country.
Through input from economists, the survey projected the five most miserable economies based on 63 economies and by looking at a number of factors including jobless rate and inflation. The country is then given a misery index based on a calculation.
To put it into perspective, Venezuela received a 159.7 index for 2016, while Argentina received a score of 39.9, according to Bloomberg.
Here are the top five most miserable economies as well as their projected misery index for the year:
- Venezuela: 159.7
- Argentina: 39.9
- South Africa: 32.0
- Greece: 27.0
- Ukraine: 26.3
Meanwhile, the United States ranks 51st on the list with a misery index of 6.4. And how about the happiest economies? That distinction has been given to Thailand with an index of just 2.2, followed by Singapore at 2.6.
