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  • Essay / Bic Mac Index - 1248

    In September 1986, The Economist launched a price index of Big Macs around the world. Initially, the idea was something of a joke, making fun of Index publications. The joke turned serious, and as a result, the Big Mac clue is still going strong to this day. It turns out that the index is a great tool for measuring purchasing power parity, also known as PPP. What can the Big Mac Index do for you? The index is used as a method of forecasting exchange rate movements. For what? Because the rate between two currencies should naturally adjust so that the Big Mac costs the same in US dollars and in the currency we are comparing it to. The Big Mac was chosen because the Burger is basically the same everywhere you go and, more importantly, you can buy the same tasty Big Mac almost anywhere in the world. It is also much easier to compare a Big Mac than a Quarter Pounder with cheese for example, because according to Pulp Fiction we would have to change the name to “Royal with Cheese” if we were in France. So basically the Big Mac is the same hamburger, same name and many places around the world. For our article, we obtained the Big Mac's PPP exchange rate between the US dollar and the Canadian dollar, the Japanese yen, the British pound and the Singapore dollar. We first wanted to know what the exchange rate should be by taking the (current exchange rate)* (US dollars per hamburger / local currency per hamburger). We then wanted to know if the currency was overvalued or undervalued according to our figures. We obtained this information by (the exchange rate minus should be the rate)/ (should be the value from the previous equation). If this percentage is positive, we believe the currency is overvalued. If this currency is negative, we believe it is undervalued. We expect currencies that we believe to be undervalued according to the Big Mac Index to appreciate against the dollar in the coming years. If the currency is overvalued, according to the Big Mac Index, we expect the currency to depreciate over the next few years. We have seen through our data that the Canadian dollar has rebounded against the US dollar after its low value in 2002. The surface that the Big Mac index has held up almost perfectly to explain the rise in the value of the Canadian dollar against the American dollar.