Misery Ranking Will Show U.S. Getting Worse Versus Rest of World
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is projected to see the worst reversal of fortune this year in a ranking of global economic misery, underscoring just how much havoc the pandemic has wrought.
America fell 25 spots, from the No. 50 spot to No. 25, on Bloomberg’s Misery Index, which tallies inflation and unemployment outlooks for 60 economies. The drop comes as President Donald Trump fights for re-election while millions of Americans remain unemployed. Only Iceland, Israel, and Panama were even close to that level of deterioration in the annual rankings.
Almost all of the economies surveyed are projected to be more miserable this year amid Covid-19, with analysts expecting increased joblessness and tepid growth.
Venezuela, Argentina, South Africa, and Turkey held on to their unenviable rankings from 2019 as the world’s four most miserable economies, with Venezuela keeping status as the world’s worse for a sixth straight year. The troubled South American country continues to suffer from soaring prices, with Bloomberg’s Cafe Con Leche Index estimating a current inflation rate of 4,043%.
Thailand claimed the title of the “least miserable” economy, though the government’s unique way of tallying unemployment makes it less noteworthy than Taiwan’s two-spot improvement to No. 6 or Singapore’s bump to No. 2 on that scale.
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