Misery index – Russia Beyond the Headlines: “Russia is only slightly behind Turkey with 20.6, but the bad tempered old bear’s mood is improving rapidly. While Russia will probably report around 10% inflation at the end of this year (less than the World Bank’s estimate), the rate has actually fallen to around zero for the last two months of the year and is expected to be in the middle single digits for at least the first half of 2010. At the same time, unemployment was around 9% as of December, but could rise a few points next year. If the current month-on-month inflation numbers are used to calculate its misery index, then Russia would be one of the happiest countries in the region and as happy as the UK and US, which also have misery indices of around 9-10.”