{"id":644509,"date":"2026-05-02T08:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T08:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/644509\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T08:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T08:18:18","slug":"why-singapore-thailand-are-among-the-worlds-happiest-economies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/644509\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Singapore, Thailand are among the world\u2019s \u2018happiest\u2019 economies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/singapore?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Singapore<\/a> and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/thailand?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Thailand<\/a> ranked among the world\u2019s \u201cleast miserable\u201d economies in an annual index compiled by a Johns Hopkins University economist, who said Southeast Asia was one of the \u201chealthiest economic neighbourhoods\u201d in the world.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The 2025 Hanke\u2019s Annual Misery Index (HAMI), compiled by applied economics professor Steve Hanke, measures the \u201ceconomic temperature\u201d of a country and seeks to approximate how its average citizen experiences the economy.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This year\u2019s HAMI found that several Southeast Asian economies had a combination of low inflation, steady employment, manageable borrowing costs and income growth \u2013 leaving households feeling less economic strain.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThink of HAMI as a thermometer pressed against the body of the economy,\u201d Hanke said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A vendor prepares her displays as she opens up for business at Mahanak Market in Bangkok on April 20. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a1ac50c4-f084-49f4-9f4e-e011b19ed111_6a5d8202.jpg\" title=\"A vendor prepares her displays as she opens up for business at Mahanak Market in Bangkok on April 20. Photo: AFP\"\/>A vendor prepares her displays as she opens up for business at Mahanak Market in Bangkok on April 20. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The index looks at four attributes, adding unemployment, inflation and bank-lending rates then subtracting the growth rate of real gross domestic product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singapore and Thailand ranked among the world\u2019s \u201cleast miserable\u201d economies in an annual index compiled by a Johns&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[311826,64,63,99,22225,2490,164,10340,4805,10556,26579,935,55469,103842,277,942,311827,11069,3725],"class_list":["post-644509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-asian-financial-crisis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cambodia","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-hong-kong","tag-indonesia","tag-johns-hopkins-university","tag-laos","tag-malaysia","tag-myanmar","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-philippines","tag-singapore","tag-steve-hanke","tag-taiwan","tag-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}