World Uncertainty Index for Cambodia (WUIKHM) | FRED | St. Louis Fed

Rows: 283
Columns: 2
Data range: 1956-01-01 to 2026-07-01
Auto-refresh: Re-checks its source every 60 days
Last refreshed with new data: 2026-11-01

Graph and download economic data for World Uncertainty Index for Cambodia (WUIKHM) from Q1 1956 to Q2 2026 about Cambodia, uncertainty, World, and indexes.

AI analysis

What the dataset is. WUIKHM is the World Uncertainty Index (WUI) for Cambodia, hosted on FRED (source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=WUIKHM). The WUI is built by Ahir, Bloom and Furceri from the frequency of "uncertainty" (and variants) in Economist Intelligence Unit country reports. It is a quarterly series with 282 observations, from Q1 1956 to Q2 2026. A fredgraph.csv endpoint serves the current vintage, and the Q2 2026 end date suggests the file is recent. Check, though, whether the latest quarter is a placeholder or has been revised. The WUI itself only begins around 1996 in most releases, so the 1956 start is probably padded with zeros or filler. That matters a great deal for how the series is interpreted. The series could help in studies of how uncertainty relates to growth, investment, FDI, tourism, exchange rates and trade in a small, open, frontier economy.

Data quality. The file has 2 columns, 282 rows and no null cells, and the dates are all distinct (282 of 282). The duplicate-row count has not been computed yet (Phase D), but with a unique date key duplicates are very unlikely. No type mismatches are reported. The main concern is not missing data but possible hidden missingness. A median and Q1 of exactly 0, with only 110 distinct values across 282 rows, means many observations are zeros. These could be true zeros (no mention of uncertainty in the EIU reports) or placeholders for periods with no coverage, particularly the early decades. Check where the zeros fall. A long run of leading zeros would indicate pre-coverage padding rather than measured low uncertainty. Also, the WUI is based on a text count normalized by report length, and Cambodia's reports are short, so the series is noisy.

Distributions. WUIKHM ranges from 0 to 1.876, with a mean of 0.129, a median of 0 and Q3 of 0.198. The mean is well above the median and the skew is 2.97, so the distribution is zero-inflated and right-skewed. 20 observations are flagged as outliers, about 7% of rows. These are probably real spikes in uncertainty (political events, the 2008–09 crisis, COVID-19, border conflicts) rather than errors, so they should not simply be dropped. For modelling, consider a log(1+x) transform, rank-based correlation (Spearman), or a two-part model (zero vs. non-zero, then magnitude). Pearson correlations will be dominated by the few spikes and may be misleading. Restrict analysis to the period of genuine coverage, and consider smoothing with a rolling average.

Join keys and pairings. The join key is observationdate, which is quarterly and anchored on the first day of the quarter (1956-01-01, ..., 2026-04-01). Other datasets must be aligned to this quarterly grain by aggregating monthly or daily data to quarter start. Good pairings include: - Cambodia real GDP growth, CPI/inflation, exports, and the KHR/USD exchange rate. - FDI inflows, tourist arrivals, and garment export volumes. - The WUI for neighbours and partners (Thailand, Vietnam, China, US), and the global WUI, to test spillovers. - Global measures such as VIX, the Economic Policy Uncertainty index, the Geopolitical Risk index, and oil prices. - Lags of 1–4 quarters should be tested, since uncertainty typically leads real-economy outcomes.

Columns

observation_date (date)
WUIKHM (decimal)