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Sam Beltran

Singapore and Thailand ranked among the world’s “least miserable” economies in an annual index compiled by a Johns Hopkins University economist, who said Southeast Asia was one of the “healthiest economic neighbourhoods” in the world.
The 2025 Hanke’s Annual Misery Index (HAMI), compiled by applied economics professor Steve Hanke, measures the “economic temperature” of a country and seeks to approximate how its average citizen experiences the economy.
This year’s HAMI found that several Southeast Asian economies had a combination of low inflation, steady employment, manageable borrowing costs and income growth – leaving households feeling less economic strain.
“Think of HAMI as a thermometer pressed against the body of the economy,” Hanke said.

The index looks at four attributes, adding unemployment, inflation and bank-lending rates then subtracting the growth rate of real gross domestic product.
The lower the HAMI score, the “healthier” a country’s economy is, meaning “jobs are healthy, prices are stable, credit is affordable, and incomes are rising”, according to Hanke.
“A high HAMI score means the economy is feverish and its people are suffering,” he said.
The index does not, however, take into account a country’s size, geopolitical heft or per-capita income.
A total of 178 economies were ranked this year, with Venezuela topping the list at 556.5. Hanke attributed this to the wave of international sanctions following Nicolas Maduro’s re-election in July 2024, restricting oil revenues and leading to the decline of its currency.
The South American country had the world’s highest inflation rate at 475 per cent, while unemployment surged to 35 per cent.


At No 178, Taiwan emerged as the world’s happiest economy with a score of 2.1, as global demand for semiconductors and artificial intelligence hardware sent its real GDP growth per capita soaring to 9.2 per cent, alongside low unemployment, inflation and bank-lending rates.
Singapore was a close second at 2.6, thanks to the city state’s tight labour market at 2.0 per cent unemployment, “well-anchored inflation at 1.2 per cent, and solid GDP growth of 4.3 per cent per capita”.
Thailand came in third with a score of 3.1, having delivered low inflation and stable employment for more than a decade. Consumer prices fell by 0.3 per cent, while unemployment stayed at 0.8 per cent and its real GDP per capita grew by 2.5 per cent.
‘Economically healthy’
Other Southeast Asian countries outdid larger economies, with Malaysia (167), Cambodia (163) and Vietnam (156) appearing in the lowest quintile on the index.
Hanke also pointed out that the Philippines (131), Laos (129), and Indonesia (123) did well, while civil war-torn Myanmar stood out as an exception, ranking 14th with a score of 66.
“Each of these economies is doing a respectable job on all four variables,” Hanke said. “That is why they sit comfortably ahead of the US, the UK and France,” which ranked 119th, 103rd and 115th, respectively.
Hanke, who served as chief economic adviser to Indonesian president Suharto during the Asian Financial Crisis and played a key role in advising Donald Trump’s administration against imposing financial sanctions on Hong Kong in 2020, called Southeast Asia “one of the world’s healthiest economic neighbourhoods”.

Careful control of money supply helped Singapore and Thailand maintain stable inflation rates and relatively low borrowing costs, according to Hanke.
Despite Thailand’s slow-growing GDP, falling consumer prices and low unemployment rates indicated that “the Thai people are not living in a sluggish economy in any sense that touches their daily lives”, he said.
“Thailand’s consistent excellence at the bottom of the HAMI is no accident,” he said.
“Stable money begets stable prices, stable prices beget relatively low lending rates, and relatively low lending rates beget the kind of low-unemployment, modestly-growing economy that Thailand has delivered for over a decade.”
In comparison, high unemployment and bank-lending rates dragged the Philippines’ outlook, showing that it was “not yet in the company of its better-performing Southeast Asian neighbours”.
Overall, according to Hanke, Southeast Asia’s pattern of “pragmatic central banking … generally open trade regimes, and high savings rates channelled into productive investment” has led to the region’s healthy outlook.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, agreed that the region’s dynamic monetary policies and financial stability helped create an environment conducive to long-term economic growth.
The Philippine economy had been one of the fastest-growing economies in recent years – especially pre-pandemic, rising by at least 6 per cent between 2012 and 2019, he said. The country also has one of the largest and youngest populations globally, with an average age of below 25.
However, with some Southeast Asian countries hardest hit by the Gulf conflict, inflation could pick up in the coming months if the Strait of Hormuz remained closed off, he warned.
A March report by the Institute of International Finance identified Thailand and the Philippines, alongside India, as the most vulnerable to rising food and energy costs as a result of the Iran war, driven by their high net energy imports from the Middle East.
El Nino, forecast to bring hotter and drier conditions across the region, may also lead to higher rice and food prices and could “add to inflationary pressures later in 2026 up to early 2027”, according to Ricafort.
In the Philippines, this could erode purchasing power as higher shipping costs and affected routes could drive up transport costs, leading to a surge in prices of goods and services.


Why Singapore, Thailand are among the world’s ‘happiest’ economies

Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi moved from prison to house arrest

How the AI boom is helping Asia weather the Iran war energy shock

Why an era of managed Hormuz disruption wouldn’t bode well for Asia

Asean

People walk on the boardwalk in front of Singapore’s financial centre. Photo: AFP

A vendor prepares her displays as she opens up for business at Mahanak Market in Bangkok on April 20. Photo: AFP

US economist Steve Hanke (left) chats with Indonesian president Suharto before talks in Jakarta on February 13, 1998. Photo: Reuters

People eat braised beef stew at a stall in Manila on April 7. Photo: AFP

Will Asean’s scramble for Russian oil fuel shift in regional alliances?

A man refuels the tank of a motorcycle at a petrol station in Manila, the Philippines, on April 7. The Strait of Hormuz blockade has resulted in energy shortages in Asia. Photo: AFP

A tugboat guides the Russian oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin as it arrives at a port in northwestern Cuba on March 31. Asean members have turned to Russia to secure oil supplies. Photo: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) greets his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 13. Photo: EPA

People wait to refill their motorbikes at a petrol station in Hanoi in March. Vietnam has secured several energy-related agreements with Russia to address fuel shortages in the country. Photo: EPA

Why Asean neutrality in Iran war is key to unlocking Strait of Hormuz

An oil tanker sits anchored off Muscat, Oman, on March 10. Photo: Reuters

Tankers and cargo ships dock at the oil depot and container terminal of Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto (centre) attends the inaugural “Board of Peace” meeting in Washington on February 19. Photo: Reuters

Pedestrians walk past a closed petrol station in Tacloban City, central Philippines, on Monday. Photo: AFP

Most in Asean prefer China over US as partner in poll, Trump cited as biggest concern

US President Donald Trump greets Chinese President Xi Jinping before a bilateral meeting at the Gimhae International Airport terminal in South Korea in October. Photo: Daniel Torok/White House/dpa

Ousted president Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, and his wife, Cilia Flores, arrive at the Wall Street Heliport in New York on January 5 after a US raid in Caracas. Photo: TNS

Various leaders attend the 2025 Asean-GCC-China summit in Kuala Lumpur. Analysts say rising support for Beijing in Asean, as seen in a survey, could be due partly to China’s closer economic ties with the region. Photo: Reuters

Why Asean cooperation remains primary shield against Malacca Strait tolls

A worker walks past a liquefied natural gas tanker in the Malacca Strait on April 15. Photo: EPA

A container ship enters the Singapore Strait from the Strait of Malacca. Photo: Reuters

The Epaminondas container ship seized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, on Wednesday. Photo: WANA/Reuters

Work from home may not save as much energy as Southeast Asia hopes

Motorists drive along a road in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, on April 6. Thailand has ordered its civil servants to work from home amid the energy crisis. Photo: EPA

Hundreds of air conditioners are seen on the rear of buildings in Singapore. Air conditioners in private homes are typically far less efficient than commercial ones. Photo: Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

A man fills a lorry with diesel at a Petros petrol station in Kuching, Malaysia. Transport and logistics operations are unlikely to be affected by remote working arrangements. Photo: AFP

Commuters travel on a Mass Rapid Transit train in Singapore. Polls have found that most residents of the city state prefer to take public transport over private vehicles. Photo: Roy Issa

A row of air conditioning units is seen on a rooftop with a backdrop of the cityscape of Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: AFP 

This Week in Asia

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Southeast Asian countries outdid larger economies in the 178-nation Hanke’s Annual Misery Index for 2025


Southeast Asian countries outdid larger economies in the 178-nation Hanke’s Annual Misery Index for 2025.


Why Singapore, Thailand are among the world’s ‘happiest’ economies

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Southeast Asian countries outdid larger economies in the 178-nation Hanke’s Annual Misery Index for 2025

Southeast Asian countries outdid larger economies in the 178-nation Hanke’s Annual Misery Index for 2025