How much do you think you can buy at the store for ₮25,000, or about $6.5?

🫙 A Wallet That Gets Emptier Year by Year

5 years ago, ₮25,000 could buy 1 loaf of bread, 1 kg of bone-in beef, 1 liter of milk, 1 bottle of vegetable oil, and 1 kg each of onions and garlic. Today, that same basket will set you back ₮49,000, almost double the price after just 5 winters and springs. Inflation sure knows how to stretch its legs.

• 🧄 Is Garlic Turning into a Luxury? The product with the sharpest price increase over the past 5 years is garlic imported from China, with consumer prices soaring by 145.5%, now averaging ₮10,900 per bulb. Onion prices rose 140.9% per kg.
• 👀 The Big Picture: Of 35 consumer goods and services tracked during this period, prices for 34 items increased. The only exception was imported cigarettes, which fell by 1.1%, although domestic cigarette prices climbed 18.3%. On average, prices rose by 74.5%.
• 👹 Nothing Stays the Same: Prices for everything from haircuts, grocery meals, alcohol and beer, to heating fuel have risen. Even bus fares, which had been stable for years, finally increased.

💭 Overall picture

Inflation averaged 8.6% annually over the past 5 years. What could be bought for ₮1,000 then now costs ₮1,745. Meanwhile, if you had simply held on to that ₮1,000 in cash, its real purchasing power today would be just ₮573.

Overall… The decline in purchasing power for ₮25,000 is more than just numbers. It’s a real measure of quality of life. Despite nominal wage increases, questions remain about tax burdens and wage distribution. Is it any surprise that 2.3 million people now have loans from non-bank financial institutions? This reflects a deep, systemic insufficiency.