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.
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“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.
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