Presidential Burgernomics: Zuma tops Big Mac index. China’s Xi bottom, again.

The Presidential value for money discussion on Biznews has generated lots of reaction. The first index compared President salaries against the GDP of the country they manage. South African president Zuma was shown to be hugely overpaid.

Yesterday Biznews took the discussion further. The second index compared salaries against the average earnings of citizens in the country they rule, again President Zuma was a massive outlier, receiving 34.5 times what the average South African is paid.

The third index was inspired by a member of the Biznews community Jason Nicholls. It looks at what was initially developed as a lighthearted guide to determine whether currencies are at their "correct level". The Economist based The Big Mac index on the theory of purchasing power parity in 1986, it has now become a global standard. It uses the cost of a Big Mac burger as a standard across the globe. Nicholls used this to determine how many burgers a President can afford on a daily and annual basis. The numbers are staggering and there may be holes in the concept but as the table shows President Zuma can afford the most Big Macs, while China's Xi can afford the least.