SINGAPORE: On the Hanke’s Annual Misery Index for 2025, which measures the health of the 178 economies, Singapore took the number two spot, just behind Taiwan.
The index is published each year by Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at The Johns Hopkins University, who is also known as the “money doctor” for his expertise in using economic data from the Economist Intelligence Unit, International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook, and other sources, to take the “temperature” of economies to see how “miserable” or “healthy” each one is.
Prof Hanke’s index is based on the sum of an economy’s unemployment rate at the end of the year (multiplied by two), plus inflation and bank-lending rates. From this figure, the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita is deducted.
Taiwan, which clinched first place for the second year in a row, scored 2.1159, with unemployment as the major contributing factor for its score. Singapore followed with a score of 2.5939, and the lending rate was listed as the city-state’s major contributing factor.
Another Asian economy, Thailand, came in third (3.1417), followed by Ireland (5.3470) and Côte d’Ivoire (6.2886).
