SOUTH AFRICA has became the first country in the world where a Big Mac hamburger costs less than a United States dollar. Commenting on the fall of the rand to R10 to a dollar, Tradek economist Mike Schussler said a Big Mac cost R9,95. "We have just become the cheapest country in the world, according to the Big Mac index," Schussler said. The Big Mac index is an unofficial, global barometer that uses the ubiquitous McDonalds product to measure the purchasing power of the currencies of countries around the world. "In fact we are just over 13 per cent cheaper than the second cheapest country on the list -- the Philippines – and 20 pe rcent cheaper than China," he said. "In April this year a Big Mac still cost less in the Philippines than in South Africa by a US two-cent margin. Now Big Mac burgers in South Africa are nearly 14 US cents cheaper than in the Philippines and 21 US cents cheaper than in China." "This shows that the internal purchasing power of the rand is holding up quite well as the external purchasing power falls like a stone. Sooner or later the two must meet with either inflation or the rand recovering somewhat," he said. "Most likely it will be a combination as South African exports are more likely to outperform as productivity growth is still very high compared to most countries. "A Big Mac here only costs about a third of what it does in Denmark. Including the cost of bulk airfreight we could probably make the burgers here, fly them to Denmark and still give cheaper cholesterol to the Danes than they could!" The Big Mac index shows that the rand is about 61 per cent undervalued when compared to the dollar, 66 per cent undervalued against the Danish krona and 65 per cent undervalued against the British pound.