SA in top 5 for 'misery'

05 February 2016 - 02:59 By Bloomberg

South Africa has cracked a top-five ranking in the world. The bad news is that it is for the world's "unhappiest economies".The good news is that SA is not No1 in news agency Bloomberg's "misery index". That dubious honour goes to Venezuela, which retains the title it acquired in 2015.With no end in sight to Venezuela's economic woes - estimates in Bloomberg surveys predict consumer price growth of 152% and joblessness averaging 7.7% - economists polled for the 2016 index made it the runaway winner once again.The ranking of 63 economies is compiled by adding a country's jobless rate and inflation, a long-standing calculation in which a higher score indicates more misery.Venezuela's 159.7 tally for the 2016 misery index is quadruple the next-worst ranking - Argentina.While Venezuela and Argentina are tackling inflation, rounding out the top five unhappiest economies in 2016 are those desperately trying to stop unemployment from deepening - South Africa, Greece and Ukraine.The global slump in crude prices has been especially harsh on Venezuela, where oil makes up 95% of exports.Falling revenue is further weighing on budget strains. Venezuela owes as much as $10-billion in foreign bond payments this year.In Argentina, authorities are overhauling the statistics agency and have stopped reporting some economic indicators until that has been done. This, after years of being accused of releasing dodgy data.Elsewhere in the world, the picture is not quite as bleak.There were success stories last year, with Poland ranking No42 on the scale, and not No19 as was projected at the start of 2015, in part due to lower-than-expected joblessness.But Poland might climb the misery index ladder in 2016 amid an increasingly uncertain fiscal and economic outlook (including a possible debt downgrade) caused by the new ruling party's costly campaign promises.The world's happiest economies are similar to last year's.Thailand, in part due to unique structural issues will remain least miserable.Singapore, where survey data is newly available, will be second-best.Switzerland, Taiwan and Japan remain in the top five. Moody's mood is gloomyThe country's weak economic growth will hobble its ability to raise tax revenues and tackle the effects of severe drought, ratings firm Moody's said yesterday.Last year was the driest on record as the drought worsened, hitting growth hard and fuelling inflation.Moody's rates South Africa at two notches above sub-investment grade, with a negative outlook. Fitch and Standard & Poor's put the country one notch above junk status. Reuters..

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