Here's a "fun" fact for visitors to Argentina: it's (from a video I recently watched, and I confirmed by going into the nearest McDonalds in Buenos Aires) now *second in the world* on the famous "Big Mac Index", second only to Switzerland in cost. I think it's around $7. A combination of continued inflation (though less than the extremes of pre-2024 of course), with a rapid appreciation of the peso vs the USD, means that prices are shockingly high of many everyday things like food, for visitors. A good steak in a restaurant was, a year ago, $10-12 and is now $25 for example. So it went from being surprisingly cheap to being .. well, surprisingly expensive, in about a year. But a fascinating extra detail on the price of a Big Mac, and here I quote from wikipedia:
"Critics of the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina and many economists believe that the government has for years falsified consumer price data to understate the country's true inflation rate.[28] The Economist stated in January 2011 that Big Mac index "does support claims that Argentina's government is cooking the books. The gap between its average annual rate of burger inflation (19%) and its official rate (10%) is far bigger than in any other country."[22] That year the press began reporting on unusual behavior by the more than 200 Argentinean McDonald's restaurants. They no longer prominently advertised Big Macs for sale and the sandwich, both individually and as part of value meals, was being sold for an unusually low price compared to other items. Guillermo Moreno, Secretary of Commerce in the Kirchner government, reportedly forced McDonald's to sell the Big Mac at an artificially low price to manipulate the country's performance on the Big Mac index.[29][28] In June 2012, the price of the Big Mac value meal suddenly rose by 26%, closer to that of other meals, after The Economist, The New York Times, and other media reported on the unusual pricing. A Buenos Aires newspaper stated "Moreno loses the battle"."
#argentina #inflation
waxwing /
npub1va…knuu7
2025-03-25 16:17:33
Author Public Key
npub1vadcfln4ugt2h9ruwsuwu5vu5am4xaka7pw6m7axy79aqyhp6u5q9knuu7Published at
2025-03-25 16:17:33Event JSON
{
"id": "0b75b418fd77732fca71cd7e87353edf013f3fb70788c50917c1b89a21f572b6",
"pubkey": "675b84fe75e216ab947c7438ee519ca7775376ddf05dadfba6278bd012e1d728",
"created_at": 1742919453,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"argentina"
],
[
"t",
"inflation"
]
],
"content": "Here's a \"fun\" fact for visitors to Argentina: it's (from a video I recently watched, and I confirmed by going into the nearest McDonalds in Buenos Aires) now *second in the world* on the famous \"Big Mac Index\", second only to Switzerland in cost. I think it's around $7. A combination of continued inflation (though less than the extremes of pre-2024 of course), with a rapid appreciation of the peso vs the USD, means that prices are shockingly high of many everyday things like food, for visitors. A good steak in a restaurant was, a year ago, $10-12 and is now $25 for example. So it went from being surprisingly cheap to being .. well, surprisingly expensive, in about a year. But a fascinating extra detail on the price of a Big Mac, and here I quote from wikipedia:\n\n\"Critics of the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina and many economists believe that the government has for years falsified consumer price data to understate the country's true inflation rate.[28] The Economist stated in January 2011 that Big Mac index \"does support claims that Argentina's government is cooking the books. The gap between its average annual rate of burger inflation (19%) and its official rate (10%) is far bigger than in any other country.\"[22] That year the press began reporting on unusual behavior by the more than 200 Argentinean McDonald's restaurants. They no longer prominently advertised Big Macs for sale and the sandwich, both individually and as part of value meals, was being sold for an unusually low price compared to other items. Guillermo Moreno, Secretary of Commerce in the Kirchner government, reportedly forced McDonald's to sell the Big Mac at an artificially low price to manipulate the country's performance on the Big Mac index.[29][28] In June 2012, the price of the Big Mac value meal suddenly rose by 26%, closer to that of other meals, after The Economist, The New York Times, and other media reported on the unusual pricing. A Buenos Aires newspaper stated \"Moreno loses the battle\".\"\n\n#argentina #inflation ",
"sig": "a15dc5e58a8391a82a8e9ebfe7cc05c290ac2d054edd3ccdc9df2b1cfc0fa7c04609522151e82a5a5d6430df097fc59e4fffb1e71f66311a8de8e383ebd5520b"
}