Averages are where stories go to die. Across the thirteen Asian markets in the Big Mac Index, the average dollar price change between January and July 2026 was −0.1% — statistically nothing.
Underneath that nothing, Thailand fell 6.6% and China rose 6.9%. A 13-point spread inside a region that “did not move.”
Here is the whole picture, sorted from cheapest-getting to dearest-getting.
| Country | Dollar price | Local price | Exchange rate | What $100 buys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇹🇭 Thailand | −6.6% | 0.0% | +7.1% | 23.3 → 24.9 burgers |
| 🇮🇩 Indonesia | −5.4% | +1.2% | +7.0% | 39.7 → 42.0 |
| 🇵🇭 Philippines | −3.6% | 0.0% | +3.7% | 35.2 → 36.5 |
| 🇮🇳 India | −2.4% | +4.1% | +6.6% | 39.8 → 40.7 |
| 🇹🇼 Taiwan | −1.9% | 0.0% | +2.0% | 40.5 → 41.3 |
| 🇸🇬 Singapore | −0.1% | 0.0% | +0.1% | 17.3 → 17.3 |
| 🇻🇳 Vietnam | +0.1% | 0.0% | −0.1% | 34.6 → 34.5 |
| 🇵🇰 Pakistan | +0.7% | 0.0% | −0.7% | 25.9 → 25.7 |
| 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | +1.5% | +2.0% | +0.5% | 31.2 → 30.7 |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | +1.9% | +4.2% | +2.3% | 33.0 → 32.4 |
| 🇰🇷 South Korea | +2.5% | +3.6% | +1.1% | 26.7 → 26.1 |
| 🇲🇾 Malaysia | +5.2% | +5.8% | +0.6% | 29.5 → 28.0 |
| 🇨🇳 China | +6.9% | +3.9% | −2.8% | 27.3 → 25.6 |
The line runs through the middle of the region
Look at the two right-hand columns together and the split is mechanical.
The countries that got cheaper mostly did not touch their prices. Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan held their menus at exactly the same number. Every bit of their dollar-price decline came from the exchange rate — the dollar bought 7.1% more baht, 3.7% more pesos, 2.0% more New Taiwan dollars. Six of the thirteen markets left local prices completely unchanged.
The countries that got more expensive raised prices into a currency that did not fall. China raised its local price 3.9% and the yuan appreciated 2.8% against the dollar — both effects pushing the same direction, compounding into +6.9%. Malaysia raised 5.8% with a flat ringgit. Japan and Korea did smaller versions of the same.
So this is not “the dollar is strong in Asia.” The dollar strengthened sharply against Southeast Asian and South Asian currencies, and weakened slightly against the yuan. That is a different and more specific claim, and it is the one the data supports.
What it means if you are booking a trip
The rightmost column is the practical one — how many Big Macs $100 buys, which is a rough proxy for how far your money goes on everyday spending.
Thailand is the standout. Your $100 buys 24.9 Big Macs instead of 23.3 — 7% more than six months ago, with nothing changing on the ground. Thai prices are identical; only the conversion is better. On a two-week trip that is real money, and it arrived without a single sale or discount.
Indonesia is the cheapest country in the entire index at $2.38, having taken that position from Taiwan this edition. It also got 5.7% cheaper for dollar-holders in six months.
China moved the other way. $100 now buys 25.6 burgers instead of 27.3 — 6.4% less. Anyone budgeting a China trip from figures more than six months old will be short.
For orientation, on this measure a dollar goes furthest in Indonesia, Taiwan and India (40+ burgers per $100) and least far in Singapore (17.3) — where a Big Mac costs $5.78, more than double Indonesia’s, in a region often described as uniformly cheap.
The caveat that matters most here
A Big Mac is a poor proxy for a travel budget and a good proxy for a currency.
The burger is priced in urban locations, mostly to middle-income local customers, by a company with global sourcing. It tracks the exchange rate faithfully and local street-level costs only loosely. If you eat at hawker stalls in Bangkok or night markets in Taipei, your actual spending is far more sensitive to local food inflation than this index shows.
What the table above is genuinely good for is the direction and rough magnitude of the currency move, and for that it is reliable — the “local price 0.0%” rows are as clean an experiment as this dataset ever produces. When the product is identical and only the exchange rate changed, you are looking at pure currency effect with nothing else in the way.
Use it to decide which countries have become relatively cheaper. Do not use it to set a daily budget.
Why the split is worth watching
The mechanism behind six flat-price countries is covered in part 3 of this series: menu prices move in jumps, not drifts, and a flat six months means pressure is accumulating rather than absent.
That has a forward-looking implication for this table. Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore and Pakistan are all holding prices while their input costs presumably are not holding still. When those jumps come — and Thailand has changed price only once in five years — the dollar-price advantage in the left column will close quickly, regardless of what the currency does.
The discount is real. It is also, historically, temporary.
Data: The Economist Big Mac Index, January and July 2026 editions. “What $100 buys” is $100 ÷ dollar price, rounded to one decimal. Live figures for every country on the interactive index; this edition’s full breakdown in part 1.