Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has expressed his pleasure over Thailand’s rating as the “least miserable” economy in the Bloomberg Misery Index for 2019, Deputy Government Spokesman Lt-Gen Weerachon Sukondhapatipak said today.

He said Thailand scored 2.1, which was the same score it received last year, making it the “least miserable” country out of 62 economies as rated by Bloomberg.

Switzerland improved to second least miserable. Venezuela was rated the “most miserable economy” with inflation projected at about six million percent this year. 

However, Bloomberg reported that Thailand is often rated least miserable due, in large part, to its rather unorthodox way of counting employment as well as their low fertility rate and aging population.

The US moved six places to 13th least miserable and the UK improved four spots to 16th least.

The Bloomberg Misery Index relies on the age-old concept that the rate of inflation and level of employment generally illustrate how content participants in the economy should feel.  This year’s score is based on Bloomberg economist surveys, while prior years reflected actual data.

The Bloomberg Misery Index is calculated as the sum of a country’s inflation and unemployment rates.  The index compares the median estimate of economists’ forecasts for each country in 2019.

Weerachon said that the Bank of Thailand put Thailand’s unemployment rate at 0.9 percent and inflation at 1.1 for last year.

Besides unemployment and inflation, he said the government has attached importance to crime and corruption suppression as well as control of the cost of living of the Thai.