AllTop Viral!

The most viral news stories that you need to know about.

Using Big Macs to measure Europe’s economies

Posted by / February 11, 2013

big hamburger isolated on white

The Economist has been using the price of a Big Mac for decades to monitor the health of economies around the world. Part “tongue in cheek” but mostly serious, this measure can yield amazingly accurate results.

This year’s report shows that while Big Macs generally cost the same to make around the Euro zone, they are sold at prices that reflect the economies and so Ireland’s Big Macs retail for the least amount of money and healthy Germany’s Big Macs sell for the highest prices. Greece, Portugal and Spain also have lower-priced Big Macs and Italy comes in above Germany, despite their poor economy. This, says Guntram Wolff (the economist who put together this year’s report) shows that Italy needs to get its inflation under control.

Full story at the Bruegel think-tank via Yahoo (Australia) News.

More economics news.

Photo credit: Dmytro Sukharevskyy – Fotolia.com

Feb/11/13

Comments are off for this post.

Most Popular On AllTop Viral