Thailand was ranked as top of the world’s happiest economies in a recent survey conducted by Bloomberg News. According to Bloomberg, Thailand comes first in the list of 51 countries it surveyed.
Coming after next after Thailand were Switzerland, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan — four of the five countries are located in Asia. Bloomberg said the said countries are relatively happy in terms of consumer friendliness. The two factors that make consumers unhappy are inflation and unemployment, and the degree of happiness is calculated and ranked according to what Bloomberg referred to as the “misery index.” On the said index, Thailand and Switzerland scored lower than 2.5, while Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were rated from 2.5 to 5.
The lower the misery index is, the happier the economy is, Bloomberg said. Bloomberg pointed out the surprising winner as a country that was not relatively rich compared to many others; the partial reason behind Thailand’s triumph was credited to its extremely low unemployment rate of 1 percent, which in turn kept the country from inflation; yet Thailand still has a long way to go before it reaches the living standards of more developed economies, it noted. In the entire Europe region, Switzerland continues to lead the other countries when it came to economical happiness, despite the controversy surrounding the Swiss National Bank earlier this year.
According to the research done by economists, only 3.3 percent of the Swiss people may be out of a job this year, but the slight 0.9 percent drop in prices in 2015 may help when its currency surges in value; all elements making Switzerland the second happiest economy. Third in the ranking, Japan has only recently loosened its grip in preventing deflation since the 1990’s, and there may be around 1 percent of deflation in the country this year.
The unemployment rate has improved as well, dropping 0.1 percent from 3.6 to 3.5 in one year. China is ranked number 7, as Bloomberg pointed out that it has found relief in both inflation and unemployment, boosting it forward two places compared to last year. The United States is still facing issues from job loss rates — the world’s biggest economy is not the best in this field, but it is still ranked number eight among the 51 economies.
