This research note examines changes in food prices and their effects on the cost of common and healthy diets, as well as on the food purchasing power of casual workers’ wages—a timely, accurate and cost-effective way of monitoring food affordability for key segments of Myanmar’s poor population.1 Data on food prices and casual wage levels were collected through interviews with food vendors in rural and urban areas across Myanmar between December 2021 and October 2025 as part of the ongoing Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS).
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- Between October–December 2024 and July–October 2025, nominal urban construction wages increased by 25 percent (for both men and women), while nominal rural agricultural wages rose by 23 percent for men and 22 percent for women.
- Over the same period, prices of rice, the main staple, declined by 9 percent and the cost of a common diet changed very little.
- Real wages at the end of 2025 improved significantly compared to previous years and the value of wages relative to the cost of a common diet was higher than in the three preceding years, suggesting reduced vulnerability to food insecurity for casual laborers.
- The cost of a healthy diet was 50 percent higher than that of a common diet in Q3/Q4 2025. Over the entire 2022–2025 survey period, the cost of both diets has nearly tripled, rising by 187 percent for the common diet and 191 percent for the healthy diet.
- While real urban wages were significantly higher than rural wages in 2022, that difference has disappeared; real wages—measured in terms of a common diet—are now at similar levels in rural and urban areas.
- Casual laborers in Rakhine and Chin had the lowest purchasing power in 2025, underscoring the economic fragility of these states and the precarious circumstances faced by their populations.