Pricele #24: Big Mac in India 🇮🇳

The Big Mac is the most-quoted price in economics. The Economist started publishing its Big Mac Index in 1986 as a light-hearted way to test purchasing-power parity, the theory that a currency should buy the same basket of goods anywhere. Because the burger is close to identical everywhere it is sold, the gap between what it costs in two countries is a rough read on whether a currency is over- or undervalued.

Of the 45 countries priced for big mac, India ranks #45 from the top at $2.51, 55% below the median of $5.53.

India has the cheapest Big Mac in the Economist's index, though the Indian sandwich is a Maharaja Mac, since McDonald's does not sell beef there, which is the one place the index's like-for-like premise breaks down. Local staples are inexpensive; imported and branded goods are not. GST is tiered from 5% to 28% with a general rate of 18%, and most fresh unprocessed food is nil-rated, so the tax system draws a hard line between what comes from a farm and what comes from a factory. That line is visible directly in this table: the unbranded items sit near the bottom of the global range while the branded ones climb toward the middle.

See the full table for big mac in every country or everything priced in India.