bne:Chart – Kyiv has the most unaffordable Big Mac in CEE/CIS

By bne IntelliNews October 27, 2015

Henry Kirby in London -

In 1986 The Economist first published its now-ubiquitous measure of purchasing power, the Big Mac Index, which measures the various prices of McDonald’s eponymous burger, worldwide. Now Swiss bank UBS has got in on the act, developing the idea by measuring the minutes it would take to earn enough money to purchase a Big Mac in various cities.

UBS' argument for its working-time Big Mac index, published recently as part of its "Prices & Earnings 2015" report, is that the nominal price of a burger used by The Economist may be misleading due to it being disproportionately cheaper or costlier in other countries, whereas their working time-based method factors in the circumstances of the average worker.

As the chart shows, burger-lovers in Kyiv have the raweast deal, having to work for nearly an hour to afford a Big Mac – nearly triple the time it would take a Muscovite to earn one, according to UBS' "Prices & Earnings 2015" report. Those living in Western Europe would earn roughly enough money to buy four burgers in the same time.

Ukraine’s year-on-year inflation sat at 51.9% in September – the sixth consecutive month where consumer price growth has breached the 50% mark.

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