Wednesday, July 09, 2008

2007 Household Spending on Fuel, Food and Drink

THE ECONOMIST -- The soaring cost of food and fuel is a concern for the governments of rich and poor countries alike. Many households in Africa and Asia shell-out more on food and fuel as a share of total spending and so are disproportionately hit by rising prices.

MP: Despite rising food and fuel costs in the U.S., it could be a LOT worse. In fact, it IS a LOT worse everywhere in the world, except Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, in terms of the percent of household income spent on the basics: fuel, food and drink (see map above, click to enlarge).

5 Comments:

At 7/09/2008 8:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, it's all relative.

I'm sure that heating and cooling costs in rural Mexico are a very small fraction of total spending.

 
At 7/09/2008 10:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This stat doesn't mention the amount spent for leisure or anything else besides fuel food and drink. I don't think there is a lot of entertainment in Iran for example.

 
At 7/09/2008 12:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention Venezuela! Fuel is looking pretty cheap there!

 
At 7/09/2008 5:25 PM, Blogger Sean Cooksey said...

I'm really surprised to see Japan in the yellow. I wonder why that is.

 
At 7/10/2008 9:36 AM, Blogger OBloodyHell said...

> I don't think there is a lot of entertainment in Iran for example.

Oh, come on. Surely there is much laughter to be found at the daily beheading and stoning competitions?

And when they get desperate, they can just start a fire at a girl's school and lock everyone in because they don't have their headscarfs, like all good Muslims would.

> I'm really surprised to see Japan in the yellow. I wonder why that is.

Sean - My guess would be twofold:
a) no natural material resources (just the ones between their ears) -- everything tends to be imported, especially food, fuel, and drink, making them expensive.
b) They've been trying to fix their economic problems since 1990 using neoKeynesianism. That will screw up everyone right off the bat.

 

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