purchasing power is the ability of a person or a population to acquire material goods.
Those who can acquire (which does not mean that they acquire) a greater value in goods in the same period of time have greater purchasing power.
Purchasing power is related to the monetary income of the person and/or the population. But a person who acquires a certain value in goods through non-monetary means, such as exchanging those goods for a service, has as much purchasing power as someone who acquired them with money.
In economics, there is the call Purchasing Power Parity (PPA), or Purchasing Power Parity (PPC), which is a method of calculating purchasing power between two countries.
PPA measures how much a particular currency can buy in international terms, as goods and services are priced differently from one country to another.
This method relates the purchasing power of a given person with the cost of living in the place, if the salary is enough for the individual to buy everything he or she wants, and so on.
Purchasing Power Parity is important because comparing Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in a common currency does not describe accurately the differences in material prosperity, and the PPA takes into account the differences in income and the differences in the cost of life.
See also the meaning of acquisition and social ascent.