World’s miserable countries: Phl ranks 67th

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines ranked 67th among 89 countries listed as most miserable in 2013, according to a US-based think tank which cited unemployment as the main reason for their misery.

The “misery index” was compiled by the Cato Institute in Washington, ranking 89 countries based on the sum of the unemployment rate, the lending rate and the inflation rate minus the percentage rate in real gross domestic product (GDP) per country.

Data were sourced from Economic Intelligence Unit, International Monetary Fund, and calculations of professor Steve Hanke at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The Philippines has a misery index of 11.7.

Unemployment was considered as the major contributing factor to a country’s misery, the study revealed.

The 10 most miserable countries and their misery index were: Venezuela (79.4), Iran (61.6), Serbia (44.8), Argentina (43.1), Jamaica (42.3), Egypt (38.1), Spain (37.6), South Africa (37.4), Brazil (37.3), and Greece (36.4).

Japan was the least miserable country in the list.

Unemployment rate in the country grew 7.5 percent in January compared to a year ago despite the country’s strong economic performance. The country’s GDP grew 7.2 percent in 2013.