Notwithstanding its high inflation rate, India is found to be the cheapest major economy in the world, according to a survey by Deutsche Bank.
A weaker Indian rupee has allowed the country to remain the cheapest major economy in the world despite persistently suffering the highest inflation rate, the German banking giant said in its report.
“The fact that India still runs a large current account deficit illustrates that being competitive is more than just being cheap,” said the report titled ‘The Random Walk, Mapping the World’s Prices 2014’.
Australia is overall the most expensive major economy, while the United States is the cheapest developed country.
Brazil remains very expensive for a developing country, the survey said, adding that China remains very cheap in some categories like car rentals, while for a number of branded goods, it is more expensive than the US.
In many categories China is steadily converging on US prices.
“For a number of branded goods like Levi’s jeans, Adidas shoes and iPhones, we found it to be more expensive than the United States,” the report added.
Singapore remains, by far, the most expensive place to buy a car and HK for renting office space.
Zurich was also found to be exceptionally expensive in many categories so much so that a haircut in Zurich can cost about fifteen times that in an Indian city.
