Pricele #71: A day's healthy diet in United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪
The puzzle for 9 September 2026 asked what a day's healthy diet costs in United Arab Emirates. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
A day's healthy diet · United Arab Emirates
$2.23
8.18 AED
About 9 minutes of the average local wage buys a day's healthy diet.
Cheaper than 63% of the 49 countries in the game.
Source: World Bank Food Prices for Nutrition, 2025 (converted at the World Bank official exchange rate).
About healthy diet
This is not a shopping basket anyone actually buys. It is the cheapest combination of foods on sale locally that would meet dietary guidelines, which makes it a floor rather than an average, and the number economists use to count how many people cannot reach it. Over two and a half billion people live in countries where a day of it costs more than they have to spend on food.
Where United Arab Emirates sits
Of the 49 countries priced for healthy diet, United Arab Emirates ranks #31 from the top at $2.23, 13% below the median of $2.57.
The UAE imports almost all of its food, so groceries track global shipping and wholesale costs more than local production. Fuel is the exception: it was deregulated in 2015 and now moves with world oil prices, which is unusual for a Gulf producer and leaves petrol dearer here than in Saudi Arabia. VAT arrived only in 2018, at 5%, and it is one of the few consumption taxes in the world that makes no exception for food, so the tax line on a Dubai grocery bill is small in rate terms but applies to everything on it. The result is a country where the tax wedge is nearly invisible and almost the entire price is import logistics.
| Nearby on the healthy diet table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghana | $1.98 | 24.81 GHS | 1.6 h |
| Romania | $2.02 | 9.04 RON | 15 min |
| United Arab Emirates | $2.23 | 8.18 AED | 9 min |
| Brazil | $2.26 | 12.61 BRL | 30 min |
| Peru | $2.40 | 8.57 PEN | 44 min |
What else costs what in United Arab Emirates
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $5.17 | 19 AED | 21 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $0.95 | 3.5 AED | 4 min |
| Cappuccino | $5.47 | 20.09 AED | 22 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.77 | 6.5 AED | 7 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $3.12 | 11.46 AED | 12 min |
| Apples (1 kg) | $2.36 | 8.67 AED | 9 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $0.87 | 3.2 AED | 3 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $1.04 | 3.8 AED | 4 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $8.00 | 29.3 AED | 32 min |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $5.99 | 22 AED | 24 min |
| Vape e-liquid (1 ml) | $0.84 | 3.08 AED | 3 min |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $4.61 | — | 18 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for healthy diet in every country or everything priced in United Arab Emirates.