MANILA, Philippines — As Christmas lights shine brighter and overseas Filipino workers send remittances for the season, the value of every peso becomes more apparent — even in something as simple as the price of a burger.
Dr. Alicor Panao, INQUIRER Metrics data scientist and associate professor at the University of the Philippines, said in an analysis based on the 2025 Big Mac Index that the peso is about 50 percent undervalued against the US dollar.
The index, created by The Economist, is a lighthearted way of illustrating Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which is the idea that exchange rates should eventually adjust so that the same goods cost roughly the same across countries.
But instead of a complex basket of items, the 2025 Big Mac Index uses one familiar product—the Big Mac—to compare purchasing power across currencies, like the peso and USD.
This year, it costs about 2.89 USD in the Philippines, placing the country among the world’s lower-cost economies. Prices are slightly higher than those in India and Indonesia but remain cheaper compared with Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan.