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Sweden has the world's third most expensive Big Macs: report

The Local Sweden
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Sweden has the world's third most expensive Big Macs: report
How much will a burger set you back in Sweden? Photo: Tomas Oneborg/SvD/TT

Sweden has the world's third most expensive Big Macs, behind only Switzerland and Norway, the UK's Economist magazine reported in the 2017 edition of its famous global burgernomics index.

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Sweden boasts the EU's priciest Big Mac, with the ubiquitous double-decker burger now costing $5.26 (48 kronor), according to the Economist's raw Big Mac Index.

That means it costs four percent more than it would in a McDonald's restaurant in the US.

In Switzerland a Big Mac costs $6.35, and in Norway $5.67.

The Big Mac Index was launched in 1986 as a lighthearted way of working out whether a country's currency is overvalued or undervalued, based on the theory of purchasing-power parity.

However, it has been used in several economics textbooks since its invention. And one memorable advertising campaign once erected a billboard at the border between Norway and Sweden in an attempt to entice hungry Norwegians to cross the border for a cheaper burger.

The Economist last week also presented another version of the index, adjusted for the relationship between prices and GDP per person, taking into account that prices are higher in for example Sweden, but so are wages.

According to this version, Sweden still tops the list in the EU with its Big Macs overvalued by 9.4 percent against the dollar, but falls behind Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand, Colombia, Chile and Peru.

A dollar cost around 8.9 Swedish kronor on Tuesday, compared to 9.2 a month ago.

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