State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says that the recent index which showed Sri Lanka among the 15 most miserable countries in the world is prepared based on outdated data.
Economist Steve Hanke’s Annual Misery Index 2022 (HAMI), which was released recently, had ranked Sri Lanka 11th put of 157 countries of the world.
The 2022 ranking determined the HAMI score for each country using an equation that considered unemployment, inflation, bank-lending rates and the percentage change in GDP.
The year’s HAMI had allotted the title to Zimbabwe with inflation — or, “economic mismanagement,” according to Hanke — as the contributing factor to residents’ unhappiness.
Among the ranked countries, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Argentina, Yemen, Ukraine, Cuba, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Angola, Tonga, and Ghana led the pack as the top 15 miserable countries in the world.
Meanwhile, the US ranked 134th on the list, with unemployment mentioned as the leading culprit of unhappiness.
Switzerland emerged as the least miserable, remaining at the end of the list (157), meaning its citizens are the happiest.
-With agencies’ inputs-
