An economist from John Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, Steve Hanke, has ranked Nigeria as the sixth most miserable country in the world.
The ranking is titled, Hankeโs Annual Misery Index 2018: The Worldโs Saddest (And Happiest) Countries.
Writing in the Forbes magazine of March 28, the economist notes that Misery Index is calculated using economic indices such as unemployment, inflation and the rates banks charge on loans.
โIn the sphere of economics, misery tends to flow from high inflation, steep borrowing costs and unemployment,โ Hanke warns.
The Index notes that the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria contributes largely to its unflattering rating on the Misery Index.
Hanke, in his explanatory note wrote, โThe original Misery Index was just a simple sum of a nationโs annual inflation rate and its unemployment rate.
โThe Index has been modified several times, first by Robert Barro of Harvard and then by myself.
โMy modified Misery Index is the sum of the unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates, minus the percentage change in real GDP per capita.
โHigher readings on the first three elements are โbadโ and make people more miserable. These are offset by a โgoodโ (GDP per capita growth), which is subtracted from the sum of the โbads.โ
โA higher Misery Index score reflects a higher level of โmisery,โ and itโs a simple enough metric that a busy president, without time for extensive economic briefings, can understand at a glance.โ
Thailand and Hungary rank as theย least miserable countries in the world on the 2018 Misery Index, having ranked 95th and 94th respectively of the 95 countries ranked by Hanke.
Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, Brazil and Turkey lead in that order, while Nigeria is sixth.
THE PUNCH
Be the first to comment