Nigeria has been named the sixth most miserable country in the world, according to a report by Steve Hanke, an economist from John Hopkins University in Baltimore, United State.
Venezuela tops the list for 2018, marking the country’s fourth year as the most miserable nation.
Argentina climbed to the second position, owing to the lingering peso crisis. Argentina has been burdened with numerous economic crises, which are not unconnected with domestic mismanagement and currency problems (read: currency collapses).
Iran, Brazil, and Turkey placed third, fourth and fifth respectively, while Nigeria emerged sixth.
The Misery Index was calculated using economic indices including unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates.
According to the report, Nigeria’s woes begin with high unemployment rate.
READ ALSO: FG to set up cashew processing plants in 4 states — Ogbeh
Commenting on the report, the researcher, Hanke, said “The first Misery Index was constructed by economist Art Okun in the 1960s as a way to provide President Lyndon Johnson with an easily digestible snapshot of the economy. That original Misery Index was just a simple sum of a nation’s annual inflation rate and its unemployment rate. The Index has been modified several times, first by Robert Barro of Harvard and then by myself.
He noted that the current Misery Index is the sum of the unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates, minus the percentage change in real GDP per capita.
Higher readings on the first three elements are “bad” and make people more miserable. These are offset by a “good” (GDP per capita growth), which is subtracted from the sum of the “bads.”
A higher Misery Index score reflects a higher level of “misery,” and it is reported in a simplified form that could inform a nation’s economic reform.
The Misery Index ranks 95 nations based on relevant data updated on a timely basis. The study also crosschecks with the Economist Intelligence Unit for consistency and comparability.
See the report’s table below:
