this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
31 points (94.3% liked)

Today I Learned (TIL)

461 readers
1 users here now

Rules
  1. Posts must begin with "TIL".
  2. Posts must be about a specific fact. No "TIL about [ducks]."

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
31
TIL in 2011 the Argentine government is believed to have begun making McDonald's underprice the Big Mac specifically to cover the country's high inflation on The Economist's Big Mac index (www.economist.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
3 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The Big Mac index started as a joke, but became a somewhat respectable—if still highly informal—way of measuring Purchasing Power Parity. Argentina took advantage of this by making it really cheap but hiding it so no one would order it, artificially improving the country's score.

top 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] reverie 5 points 1 year ago

The pitfalls of having your economic indicator based solely off the price of 1 specific hamburger

[–] carobwagoner 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While your claim may or may not be true. The posted article doesn't support it. It only says that the inflation according to BigMac is higher than official reporting numbers. There's nothing on it supporting any government interference on the Hamburg price to lower the numbers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That's true. I'll update the title to clarify it's just the popular believe as no government official has admitted it. However it's noted that the Big Mac there is 20% underpriced compared to the rest of its menu and hidden away and that it began the same time as the high inflation.

Other sources: