New ‘Katsu Curry Index’ aims to show how weak the yen really is

A senior strategist at Bank of New York Mellon is using the price of a Japanese fast-food staple to get an accurate snapshot of the yen’s weakness as the impact of the recent intervention fades. 

Geoff Yu created the Katsu Curry Index as an alternative to The Economist’s Big Mac Index, arguing that an international price comparison for the pork-and-rice dish — rather than burgers — gives a better sense of how the yen’s retreat feels in Japan.

In the global currency market on Wednesday, one dollar bought about 159.05 yen. Yet according to Yu’s calculations, which account for the purchasing power of the Japanese currency as reflected in the price of curry dishes,........

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