Big Mac Index: We are undervalued!
Now here is an interesting one. This works on the theory that your money are used to purchase the same goods and services so the cost of the same consumer good should be roughly the same price all around the world.Not so. A look at this Big Mac index should show other wise.
The Big Mac Index is The Economist’s light-hearted guide to exchange rates. The index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity, which says that exchange rates should move to make the price of a basket of goods the same in each country. Our basket contains just one item, a Big Mac hamburger. The exchange rate that leaves a Big Mac costing the same everywhere is our fair-value yardstick.
Many of the currencies in the Fed’s major-currency index, including the euro, the British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian dollar, are overvalued and trading higher than last year’s burger benchmark. Only the Japanese yen could be considered a snip. The dollar still buys a lot of burger in the rest of Asia too. China’s currency is among the most undervalued, but a little bit less so than a year ago.
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