Petrol Index 2021: who can fill up the most amount of petrol for the average wage?

This is an archived report. The latest ranking is available here.

Picodi.com analysis team examined the change in petrol prices in the first half of 2021 compared to the previous year and counted how many litres of petrol Malaysians can buy for the average wage.

Increase of prices on petrol stations

The first half of 2021 was characterised by the gradual defrosting of the economy and increase of petrol prices compared to the first half of 2020. In APAC countries, the highest price spikes were noted in India (+24%) and Taiwan (+22.9%).

Malaysia noted a 20.9% increase in prices, ranking 3^rd among APAC countries. Petrol prices also increased in countries like the Philippines (+10.2%), Japan (+6.7%), South Korea (+6%), and New Zealand (+2.9%).

Petrol Index 2021

In APAC countries, Malaysians fill up petrol the cheapest – in this country, 1 litre of petrol costs RM2.01 or $0.49. Hong Kong has the highest prices out of 17 considered countries – $2.44.

This year, we checked again how many litres of petrol can be bought for the average wage in various APAC countries.

For the third year in a row, the undefeated leader of the ranking is Australia with 4,128 litres of petrol. Singapore and New Zealand complete the podium with 2,037 and 2,026 litres respectively.

In Malaysia, according to the Numbeo latest data, the average monthly net salary amounts to RM3,422. It means that an average Malaysian can buy 1,711 litres of petrol for the average monthly wage (6^th place). In the previous year, Malaysians could buy 2,135 litres of petrol for the average wage.

Lower in the ranking were countries such as Japan (1,758 litres and 5^th place), Taiwan (1,514 litres and 7^th place), or China (955 litres and 8^th place).

The Philippines, Indonesia, and Cambodia took the last three places with 297, 287 and 216 litres respectively.

The world leaders

Among 104 researched countries, the lowest petrol price was noted in Algeria ($0.34 per litre), and the highest price – in Hong Kong ($2.44 per litre).

In the global purchasing power ranking, the Gulf countries are consistently on the podium:

1. Qatar – 6,532 litres;
2. Saudi Arabia – 5,170 litres;
3. Kuwait – 5,158 litres.

Americans can buy 4,723 litres of petrol for the average wage, Australians – 4,128 litres, Canadians – 2,616 litres, and Russians – 938 litres.

The worst situation was noted in Cuba. In this country, 26 litres of petrol can be bought for the average wage (2 litres less than in the previous year). Only a little better were Tajikistan and Zambia, with 188 and 214 litres.

It is also worth looking at Venezuela. This country struggles with an unstable economic situation, yet maintained last year’s limits on petrol purchases. Each citizen can buy 120 litres of petrol for about $0.002 per litre. Once the limit is exceeded, the price of petrol increases to $0.50 per litre. According to our calculations, the average wage in this country allows you to buy 230 litres of petrol (120 litres of subsidised and 110 litres in full price) which is 82 litres more than last year.

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Methodology

Petrol Index is an annual ranking of petrol prices to wages ratio, conducted by Picodi since 2019.

This report uses the average net monthly wages according to the latest available data provided by offices for national statistics or relevant ministries. In some countries, where official wage statistics are not available, we used information from Numbeo.

The average prices for the first half of 2021 in 104 countries are based on data from globalpetrolprices.com and other local sources. In order to obtain the number of litres, we divided the average wage by the average price of 1 litre of petrol. For currency conversion, we used the Google Finance average exchange rate for the last 90 days.

Public Use

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