Thursday, January 12, 2012

Big Mac and Currencies


The Economist’s “Big Mac Index” of currencies’ over or under valuations is back in this week’s “Daily chart” here

The Swiss Franc is the most overvalued currency relative to the US dollar (by more than 60 %), beating Norway, Sweden and Brazil. The most undervalued national currencies are those of India (by 60 %), Ukraine, and of Hong Kong. China comes fifth.

But why, oh why, are the intra eurozone real exchange rates over or under valuations not published? Given the current debate on potential euro exits it would provide a measure of relative competitiveness that could be compared to the conventional user cost of labor data.  

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