As global prices soar and concerns about an economic slowdown have been raised in the process of responding to this, the misery index of each country is also rising to the highest level in several years.
The economic distress index is an indicator of the economy felt by adding up the consumer price inflation rate and the unemployment rate.
According to Bloomberg on the 10th, South Korea’s economic distress index stood at 8.8 last month, up 0.4 points from the previous month’s 8.4.
This brings it closer to the economic distress index of 9.0 in July 2008, the first time in nearly 14 years, during the global financial crisis.
The consumer price index (CPI) jumped 6.0% last month from the same period last year due to the rise in international energy and grain prices, recording the highest rate of increase in 23 years and 7 months since the financial crisis.
The unemployment rate was maintained at 2.7% from March to May, but rose slightly to 2.8% last month.
As the Bank of Korea expects inflationary pressure to intensify toward the second half of the year, it is possible that the economic distress index may exceed the record of 9.0 at the time of the global financial crisis in the near future.
Countries around the world experiencing extreme inflation are in a similar situation.
The economic pain index of the United States, where the fire fell due to the highest level of inflation in more than 40 years, was 12.2 as of May.
The US CPI surged 8.6% in May, the largest increase since December 1981.
As a result, households’ purchasing power and consumer sentiment are falling sharply.
The Wells Fargo Investment Research Institute predicts that the U.S. unemployment rate (3.6%), the lowest in more than 50 years in May, will rise to 5.2% by the end of next year, following 4.3% within this year.
The US economic distress index temporarily soared to 13.4 in June 2020, at the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, and then fell.
The US economic distress index soared to an all-time high at 22.00 in June 1980, during stagflation.
Japan’s economic distress index, which had been in deflation for a long time, also rose to 5.1.
This is almost double the 2021 average of 2.6, and it is the first time in seven years since 2015 that this figure has exceeded 5.0.
The European Union (EU) also had an economic distress index of 14.9, surpassing 14.2 in November 2012, during the European financial crisis.
Sri Lanka, which is facing an economic crisis, recorded an all-time high at 59.20 and Pakistan at 27.23, and Turkey at a whopping 89.92.
“It’s worse than a recession (which sounds a bit academic),” Bloomberg Intelligence said.
“The economic pain index is rising,” he said.
/yunhap news