Philippines’ Misery Index inches up in 2025

The Misery Index, first introduced in the 1960s by economist Arthur Okun, was a simple gauge of economic pain: inflation plus unemployment rates. Over time, the measure has evolved. Johns Hopkins University economics professor Steve H. Hanke’s version — known as the Hanke’s Annual Misery Index (HAMI) — adds more nuance by giving double weight to joblessness, factoring in inflation and bank lending rates, and subtracting real per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth. For the Philippines, the pandemic year of 2020 marked the peak of economic distress. More recently, the index ticked higher: it rose to 14.4% in 2025 from 14.0% the year before, driven by jobless rate climbing to a two-year high while the real per-capita GDP growth slowed to its weakest pace in five years.