NetCredit, an online lending company in the United States, has compiled the cost of making the purchase in all the countries of the world where there is sufficient data available. His methodology has consisted of choosing twelve essential products for everyday life (a carton of milk, a package of sliced bread, a dozen eggs, tuna, cheese, etc.) and weigh the results of its price in the main supermarkets in the country.
This is a scale similar to that of the International World Bank Comparative Program, which also collects the price of different foods around the world, but, by using the idea of the weekly shopping basket, it explains in a closer and more understandable way the user some important questions about the cost of sight in different parts of the world. They have also seen fit to differentiate between absolute cost and its relationship in purchasing power parity.
The price of the weekly shopping basket in all the countries of the world (omnivorous basket)
The price of the weekly shopping basket in all the countries of the world (vegan basket)
These are some of the findings:
- Four of the five countries in the world with the most expensive shopping basket are in Europe (third place is for Cambodia). While Switzerland ranks first with its $ 53 purchase, Djibouti in East Africa has the best prices, with $ 6.89 for everything.
- The most accessible food is in USA, costing 12% of the average salary of a worker.
- Poland Win in terms of cheaper vegan shopping basket: as we see below, NetCredit have also analyzed the cost of vegan shopping baskets. In the Baltic country the price of the weekly purchase is $ 17.19.
- Conversely, United Arab Emirates They have the most expensive veganism, costing $ 64.20 for the same products.
List of most and least economical countries to do the weekly shopping
Why is it more expensive to eat in developing countries than in established economies?
The first thing that comes to mind when trying to answer this question is the level of development of livestock: perhaps because they are more developed countries, their food industry will also be more developed, so it will be cheaper. There are studies that deny that this is the main source of savings in food production. There are, however, other theories. The first, that as there are more sources of food production and widespread abundance, there is a greater elasticity of food demand. If bread were too expensive, I would eat chicken, so bread producers are careful not to raise their prices too much.
The other source of inequalities is the so-called food inflation, suffered mainly by developing countries. We are talking about countries whose population structure is not yet consolidated, with large masses of people moving from the countryside or other small cities to large urban centers, which makes more unpredictable demand cores. They also often suffer from a lack of associated agricultural infrastructure. On the other hand, weather patterns are much more fickle in India or East Africa than in the Mediterranean area, which causes prices to vary enormously from one harvest to another.
Finally, the poorest countries tend to have much higher inflation, and this supposes an engine of price increase especially of those goods of more immovable demand. You can stop buying clothes or appliances, but food, not so much.