PocketParity

The exchange counter tells you how much cash you get. This tells you what that cash actually buys.

Prototype · illustrative data

I live in

I'm taking

I'm visiting

At the exchange counter

—

Exchange rate: 1 = · Card and kiosk rates are usually 2–8% worse.

—

You receive —

Cash in local currency at the rate above.

It will feel like —

What that money buys, measured in home prices.

To spend like at home, budget —

—

What things cost there

Type what you usually pay at home. Tourists mostly spend on restaurants, hotels and transport, so each line uses its own category price level instead of the national average.

Item	At home	Equivalent there	In home money	Price level vs home

How it works

Let E be the exchange rate (destination currency per unit of home currency) and P the price level of each country relative to the US (US = 100).

Cash received: A × E. Relative price level: R = P_dest / P_home. It feels like A / R, and keeping your home standard costs A × R.

For each item: price × E × P_dest,cat / P_home,cat. It's the Big Mac Index idea, applied to every spending category.

About the data

This prototype uses rounded price levels in the style of the World Bank ICP and Eurostat PPP tables, plus approximate exchange rates. The numbers are illustrative only and not official.

The full version will pull category price levels from Eurostat and the ICP, roll them forward with category inflation (HICP/CPI) between benchmark years, and use daily ECB/Fed reference rates.

Figures are national averages. Zurich costs more than rural Switzerland.