Purchasing Power

Honduras's basic food basket has climbed to 16,700 lempiras (about $670), far exceeding the 12,000–14,000-lempira minimum wage, prompting economist Wilfredo Girón to warn that deteriorating purchasing power will force more Hondurans to emigrate as poverty deepens.

Darwin Ponce, president of the advocacy group Artículo 19, argues that comparing Honduras's food-basket prices to other countries ignores local purchasing power, and that the basic basket for a five-person urban family costs around 16,000 lempiras (about $640), not the four-person household basis some use.

A UNAH food-security monitor reports sustained increases in basic food costs—beef, pork, eggs, oil, and beans up 1–10 lempiras per item in early June—outpacing minimum-wage gains and pushing an estimated 2.2 million Hondurans toward food insecurity by year-end.

An ASJ report finds that nearly 800,000 Honduran households skip at least one meal because of high living costs, with food cited as the hardest expense to cover by 41% of the population, even as macroeconomic indicators show moderate growth.