Monday , December 23 2024
Home / le News / Budget busting burgers – Swiss franc still the most overvalued

Budget busting burgers – Swiss franc still the most overvalued

Summary:
The Economist has just published its January 2018 Big Mac index, a light-hearted measure of whether currencies are under or overvalued. The underlying assumption is that a Big Mac is the same whether bought in Kiev or Chur, so any price difference must be due to the exchange rate. © Sergiomonti _ Dreamstime.com In January 2018, Swiss Big Macs were still the world’s most expensive, making the Swiss franc the most overvalued currency, 28.1% higher than it should be. The implied exchange rate is 1.23 Swiss francs to 1 US dollar. A key criticism of the index is that it ignores wage differences. To correct for this the Economist has an adjusted index, which factors in GDP per capita. After this adjustment the Swiss franc is only 8.1% overvalued, pushing it down to the 11th most overvalued

Topics:
Investec considers the following as important: , , ,

This could be interesting, too:

Investec writes Federal parliament approves abolition of imputed rent

Investec writes Health and health insurance remain top concern for Swiss

Investec writes Reversal of higher retirement age for Swiss women rejected by top court

Investec writes Abolition of imputed rent gets bogged down in complexity

The Economist has just published its January 2018 Big Mac index, a light-hearted measure of whether currencies are under or overvalued. The underlying assumption is that a Big Mac is the same whether bought in Kiev or Chur, so any price difference must be due to the exchange rate.

© Sergiomonti _ Dreamstime.com

In January 2018, Swiss Big Macs were still the world’s most expensive, making the Swiss franc the most overvalued currency, 28.1% higher than it should be. The implied exchange rate is 1.23 Swiss francs to 1 US dollar.

A key criticism of the index is that it ignores wage differences. To correct for this the Economist has an adjusted index, which factors in GDP per capita. After this adjustment the Swiss franc is only 8.1% overvalued, pushing it down to the 11th most overvalued currency.

Wage adjustment aside, for the CHF 6.50 price of a Big Mac in Switzerland you could buy four in the Ukraine, the cheapest country on the list.

Given that one of these burgers contains around half the recommended daily fat intake, 10 grams of saturated fat and close to one gram of trans fat1, one is probably more than enough.

More on this:
Economist article (in English)
1Nutritional data.

Facebook and Twitter.

About Investec
Investec
Investec is a distinctive Specialist Bank and Asset Manager. We provide a diverse range of financial products and services to our niche client base.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *