Pricele #66: Big Mac in Pakistan 🇵🇰
The puzzle for 4 September 2026 asked what a Big Mac costs in Pakistan. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
Big Mac · Pakistan
$3.86
1,080 PKR
About 7.7 hours of the average local wage buys a Big Mac.
Cheaper than 77% of the 45 countries in the game.
Source: The Economist Big Mac Index, Jan 2026.
About big mac
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.
Where Pakistan sits
Of the 45 countries priced for big mac, Pakistan ranks #35 from the top at $3.86, 30% below the median of $5.53.
Pakistani hourly earnings are among the lowest in the game, so the work-time column is where this country's prices actually live: figures that read as cheap in dollars are not cheap to the person paying them. Sales tax on goods is 18%, high for the income level, and provinces levy their own 15% to 16% on services on top. Successive devaluations and the energy tariff increases required under IMF programmes have pushed electricity and fuel up faster than wages, which is why those two rows sit oddly high against everything else here.
| Nearby on the big mac table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | $3.66 | 25.5 CNY | 40 min |
| South Korea | $3.74 | 5,500 KRW | 16 min |
| Pakistan | $3.86 | 1,080 PKR | 7.7 h |
| Romania | $3.98 | 17.45 RON | 30 min |
| Thailand | $4.30 | 135 THB | 74 min |
What else costs what in Pakistan
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel (1 litre) | $1.41 | 390.42 PKR | 2.8 h |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $5.80 | 1,599 PKR | 11.6 h |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $0.83 | 230 PKR | 1.7 h |
| Beer (330ml) | $1.33 | 369.6 PKR | 2.7 h |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $6.31 | 1,759.5 PKR | 12.6 h |
| Vape e-liquid (1 ml) | $1.08 | 300 PKR | 2.2 h |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $0.12 | — | 14 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $0.92 | 257.39 PKR | 1.8 h |
Go deeper
See the full table for big mac in every country or everything priced in Pakistan.