Wednesday 21 May 2014

The tomatindex, onionindex and chickindex in Venezuela

How many kilos of what can you buy with the minimum wage in Venezuela?
I tried to calculate the amount of items you could buy with Venezuela's minimum wage of 1998 and 2014. I looked for prices for a kilo of tomatoes, a kilo of chicken and a kilo of onion.

In 1998 you could buy 83.3 kg of chicken and now you can buy 75 with that salary.
In 1998 you could buy 125 kg of tomatoes and now you can buy 85*.
In 1998 you could buy 250 kg of onions and now you can buy 53,13.

*I have to own up for the tomato it's a tricky business: prices fluctuate a lot and I didn't have the average yearly prices, just what I could find find on a search. Only in the case of the tomato it could be you could buy less tomatoes in early 1998 than in May...but then I'm already using a moderate price for tomatoes today.

You can tell me if I made a mistake with the data I have. One thing I find weird is that onions are more expensive than chicken now.

All in all, what we can say here is that a Venezuelan worker has reached a point where he is not better off now than 15 years earlier, when Hugo Chávez was elected as president of Venezuela.
Oh, onion! Coveted onion! A chicken for an onion!

The difference is that the price of an oil barrel has gone from $12 to over $100 and Venezuelans should be a bit wealthier for that.

Sources:
http://historico.notitarde.com/1998/05/18/valencia/valencia5.html
http://www.aporrea.org/misiones/n76552.html
http://historico.notitarde.com/1998/12/27/economia/economia3.html
http://eltiempo.com.ve/venezuela/economia/gobierno-autorizo-incremento-de-38-para-el-kilo-de-pollo/27933
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Salario_m%C3%ADnimo_en_Venezuela

Price per kg, Bs
Item                             1998              2014
Chicken    1,2 40
Tomato 0,8 50
Onion 0,4 80

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