Although Colombian pockets have been hit hard by the high cost of living, last year inflation was 13.12 percent per year, being the foods that became more expensivewhat people spend today in the country to acquire a basic food basket to survive is not among the highest percentages nor is it the lowest among 67 countries analyzed by the picodi.com portal.
And it is that according to the analysis, with the 16 percent increase in the minimum wage in Colombia, which among other things was the 16th highest among the group of 67 countries that are part of the report, a worker who earns 1,196,000 pesos a month must allocate at least 24.5 percent of that income to the purchase of the basic food basket to survive, which covers only the minimum nutritional needs of an adult per month.
And although that Colombian worker allocates four times more for that same purpose than a person earning the minimum wage in the UK (6.5 per cent) , whose income is 1,705 dollars, to a Nigerian, on the contrary, his minimum monthly income (68 dollars per month) is not enough to cover that basic need. What’s more, he needs an income 2.5 times the current one to access that food basket.
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According to the study, the cost of that Basic basket in Colombia in January 2023 is 292,650 pesos, 28.61 percent more than in the same month of 2022, and consists of 8 product groups: bread, milk, eggs, rice, cheese, meat, fruits, and vegetables. “The list is very limited, but in the amounts indicated, these products are sufficient to meet the minimum nutrient requirements of the average adult,” the portal says.
– Milk (10 liters) – 37,990 pesos
– Bread (10 bars of 500 g) – 41,330 pesos
– Rice (1.5 kg) – 5,560 pesos
– Eggs (20 units) – 12,000 pesos
– Cheese (1 kg) – 15,260 pesos
– Chicken and beef (6 kg) – 118,310 pesos
– Fruits (6 kg) – 32,530 pesos
– Vegetables (8 kg) – 29,670 pesos
The information provided by the portal indicates that the value of this basic food basket in the country went from 189,886 pesos in January 2019 to 292,650 pesos in the same month this year, a jump of 98.5 percent in those four years.
Picodi.com points out in its report that the best relationship between the prices of basic foods and the minimum wage is found, as in previous years, in Great Britain, Ireland and Australia, from 6.5 to 7.7 percent.
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Colombia in this ranking ranks 38th with a result of 24.5 percentahead of countries like Mexico (34.4 percent, position 49), Peru (35.7 percent, position 51) and Brazil (37.8 percent, position 52).
In Asia-Pacific countries like the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, more than half of the minimum wage is spent on basic food.
It adds that the largest year-on-year increases in minimum wage were recorded in Argentina (104.5 percent) and Turkey (100 percent). In these countries, both inflation and the decline in the value of the national currency have been above average for several years.
High increases in the minimum wage were also recorded in Moldova (32.5 percent year-on-year), Latvia (27.1 percent) and Malaysia (25.8 percent).
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Colombia ranks 16th in the salary growth ranking. The lowest paid experienced lower wage increases, for example, in Peru (10.3 percent) and Ecuador (5.7 percent).
TIME
