MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Big Mac index has Argentina among most expensive countries

Big Mac PPP is the exchange rate that would mean hamburgers cost the same in America as abroad

According to the Big Mac index from The Economist which measures purchasing power parity, Argentina continues to climb and is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive countries in the world.

The Big Mac index, created in 1986 has a MacDonald's hamburger value as reference helping to measure the purchasing power in different countries. It has been accepted as a reliable, simple parity index and is widely used to measure basic price levels. Among the 66 countries polled, Argentina now ranks 23 with a Big Mac tag equivalent to 2.67 US dollars. Only three years ago the same Big Mac had a cost in Buenos Aires of 1.48 US dollars, close to countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and Russia. Currently the Big Mac index has Iceland at the top of the list with a price of 7.61 US dollars for a hamburger, replacing Norway that had been leading for years and now is ranked second with 6.88 US dollars. The cheapest Big Mac can be purchased in China for the equivalent of 1.45 US dollars. This means that the Argentine currency until the melting of the economy 2001/2002 was overvalued compared to the US dollar and among the most expensive countries. The Big Mac index release coincides with a serious controversy in Argentina regarding inflation and how the consumer prices index is calculated by the Kirchner administration.