The most miserable countries index has been released

Zimbabwe is the most miserable country in the world according to an annual “misery index" that judges nations on mainly economic conditions.

The east African country beat war-torn Ukraine, Venezuela and Syria to the top spot amid soaring inflation.

The Annual Misery Index is compiled by Steve Hanke, professor of Applied Economics at John Hopkins University. The indexes are the sum of unemployment (multiplied by two), inflation, and bank-lending rates, minus the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita.

Mr Hanke has been monitoring Zimbabwe for more than 20 years since soaring inflation in 2008 when Robert Mugabe was president.

He has predicted economic growth of merely 0.9 per cent, in contrast to the 6 per cent recently predicted by Zimbabwe’s finance minister, Mthuli Ncube.

"Its [Zimbabwe's] policies have resulted in massive misery," Mr Hanke said.

"For example, Zimbabwe has suffered endemic inflation since the Mugabe era, including two episodes of hyperinflation, in which the inflation rate exceeded 50 per cent per month for 30 or more days.