The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a subsidiary of The Economist, has released its list of the world’s most expensive and least expensive cities to live in this year. Singapore and Switzerland’s Zurich have jointly topped the list of the world’s most expensive cities to live in this year.
On the other hand, among the top 10 least expensive cities in the world, there are two cities in India and one in Pakistan. The Indian cities in the list are Ahmedabad and Chennai. And there is Karachi in Pakistan.
Other cities on the least expensive list are Damascus, the capital of Syria, Tehran, the capital of Iran, Tripoli, the capital of Libya, Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, and Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria.
In the list of the most expensive cities, Geneva, another city in Switzerland, and New York, USA, are ranked third and fourth. In addition, Hong Kong is in fifth place, Los Angeles is sixth, Paris is seventh, Tel Aviv is eighth, Copenhagen is ninth and San Francisco, another American city, is in tenth place.
According to the report of EIU, considering the price of more than 200 goods and services in local currency, this year the price has increased by 7.4 percent. This is slightly lower than last year’s record 8.1 percent, but higher than the 2017-2021 price growth trend. That’s why the EIU says the global cost-of-living crisis is far from over.
Singapore has topped the list of the world’s most expensive cities nine times in the last 11 years. Transport costs there are among the highest in the world due to the government’s strict stance on controlling the number of vehicles. Besides, the most expensive goods there are clothes, groceries and alcohol. On the other hand, spending on groceries, household goods and entertainment is the highest in Zurich.
Compared to other regions of the world, the trend of rising commodity prices in Asia is relatively low, EIU said.
