Steve Hanke, an economist from John Hopkins University in Baltimore, United States, has ranked Nigeria as the sixth most miserable country in the world.
Venezuela continued to top the most miserable country list for the fourth year in a row.
“Venezuela holds the inglorious title of the most miserable country in the world in 2018, as it did in 2017, 2016, and 2015,” said Hanke, reported Daily Trust.
Rounding off the top five most miserable countries list is Argentina on number two position, Iran on the
Hanke calculated the Misery Index using economic indices including unemployment, inflation, and bank lending rates. In the case of Nigeria, the
“My modified Misery Index is the sum of the unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates, minus the percentage change in real GDP per capita,” the economist explained. “Higher readings on the first three elements are “bad” and make people more miserable.”
Thailand and Hungary ranked as the least miserable countries in the Misery index titled, “Hanke’s Annual Misery Index 2018: The World’s Saddest (And Happiest) Countries”. The two countries ranked 95th and 94th respectively of the 95 countries ranked by Hanke.
Notably, the first Misery Index was constructed by an economist, Art Okun, in the 1960s as a way to provide President Lyndon Johnson of the U.S. with an easily digestible snapshot of the economy. The original Misery Index was the sum of a nation’s annual inflation rate and its unemployment rate. The index has since been modified several times, first by Robert Barro of Harvard University and then by Hanke.
Commenting on Nigeria’s position, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described Hanke’s report as a vindication of its position “all this while,” saying the nation has sunk into a new low since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power in 2015.
