Coca Cola Index - Open Happiness

Whenever I am down and weary, I always remember to drink a can of coke. Somehow, it helps to lighten my mood and keeps me going.  I know, I know. They will dissolve your bones and slowly melt you away. Just kidding. Of course, there are some side effects to doing anything. And, you have to worry about this and about that in life. You have to worry about it everyday but not today. It is Coke day today !! So, I drank up and relaxed.

Anyway, when I was about to empty my last drop, some funny idea came to my mind. Whenever I go overseas, I will always try my best to get a can of coke just to see whether it tastes the same. Well, so far, Coca Cola has been able to maintain its standard. But, what about its price? Uhmm...does the law of one price work for Coke? As usual, I work out some statistics to show that it does not work - just like the Big Mac index. Just for info, law of one price states that the price of a particular product will eventually be the same when exchange rate is taken into consideration. If one product costs more in country A than B, people will buy this product from country A and eventually the price will be the same because the currency for country A will appreciate. Yes, you are right, this is just hypothetical and it may take many years for it to happen or it will never happen.

Let's look at the Coca Cola index below.

Coca Cola			SGD
	Local Currency	Exchange Rate
Singapore	$0.68		$0.68
Malaysia	RM1.49	2.57	$0.58
US	US$0.83	1.25	$0.66
China	CNY 2.90	4.98	$0.58
UK	68p	2.13	$1.45

The price of a can of 330ml Coca Cola cost almost the same in countries like Singapore and United States of America. They are relatively cheaper in Malaysia and China. But, look at UK. Wow, it is more than double the price of the other countries. Maybe cough syrup costs more in UK (serious - Coca Cola started off as a cough syrup. And, why can't they make modern day cough syrup as tasty as Coke?). Well, before law of one price works (if it really can), I better enjoy my Coca Cola happiness now.