{"id":423512,"date":"2020-08-08T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-08T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=423512"},"modified":"2020-08-07T09:51:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T07:51:54","slug":"these-are-the-worlds-most-miserable-economies-including-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/423512\/these-are-the-worlds-most-miserable-economies-including-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"These are the world’s most ‘miserable’ economies – including South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US 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.<\/p>\n

America fell 25 spots, from the No. 50 spot to No. 25, on Bloomberg\u2019s Misery Index, which tallies inflation and unemployment outlooks for 60 economies.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Venezuela, Argentina, South Africa, and Turkey held on to their unenviable rankings from 2019 as the world\u2019s four most miserable economies, with Venezuela keeping status as the world\u2019s worse for a sixth straight year.<\/p>\n

The troubled South American country continues to suffer from soaring prices, with Bloomberg\u2019s Cafe Con Leche Index estimating a current inflation rate of 4,043%.<\/p>\n

Thailand claimed the title of the \u201cleast miserable\u201d economy, though the government\u2019s unique way of tallying unemployment makes it less noteworthy than Taiwan\u2019s two-spot improvement to No. 6 or Singapore\u2019s bump to No. 2 on that scale.<\/p>\n

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The Bloomberg Misery Index, now in its sixth year, relies on the age-old concept that low inflation and unemployment show how good a country\u2019s residents\u00a0feel<\/span>.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s scores are based on Bloomberg surveys of economists\u2019 estimates for 2020 price growth and joblessness in each economy and compares those values to last year\u2019s actual data.<\/p>\n

The index includes countries for which Bloomberg has sufficient economic forecasts.<\/p>\n

Among economies seeing improvements in their Misery Index rankings for 2020:<\/p>\n