These are the cheapest and most expensive cities in the world right now
Ever wondered what the cheapest or most expensive cities in the world are? Well, the answers keep changing with time, and this is a time of global inflation.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released its highly anticipated semi-annual report and determined which cities offer the cheapest and most expensive cost of living.
The surveys show that average prices have gone up 8.1% over the past year in the world’s biggest cities (in local currency terms).
Here’s the weird part, before we go into the list — there are no Canadian cities in the report.
Yes, despite the eternal conversation about Vancouver being wildly unaffordable and Toronto beating out New York and LA for its sky-high living costs, nothing from the True North made the list. Is that good news or bad? You decide.
A stronger US dollar has propelled Singapore and New York City to the top of this year’s Worldwide Cost of Living rankings, making them the most expensive cities in the world. Find out where your city ranks here: https://t.co/M1FrlKeIYj#worldwidecostofliving pic.twitter.com/LNpJeIEWpJ
— Economist Intelligence: EIU (@TheEIU) December 2, 2022
A global team of researchers collects and analyzes data. More than 50,000 individual prices are collected every six months and include prices for food, drink, clothing, household supplies and personal care items, home rents, transport, utility bills, private schools, domestic help, and recreation. These are indexed.
The cities are compared with a base city — in this report, New York City — with an index score of 100.
Most expensive cities in the world
EIU
The title of the most expensive city in the world is one shared between Singapore and New York. But with Singapore being deemed the world’s most expensive city frequently, this is hardly a surprise. It has been EIU’s most expensive city eight times in ten years.
New York tying with Singapore is shocking, however. This is the first time that’s happened. There’s no second position.
These two are followed closely by Israel’s Tel Aviv in the third rank, with Hong Kong and LA tying for the fourth position. The tie eliminates a fifth rank.
Then come two Swiss cities, Zurich and Geneva, ranking sixth and seventh, respectively.
Sunny San Francisco, the final US city on the list, ranked eighth, and Paris followed at number nine.
Copenhagen and Sydney split the prize for 10th place.
The cheapest cities in the world
EIU
This year, Kyiv was not included in the survey due to the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Damascus (Syria), Tripoli (Libya), Tehran (Iran), Tunis (Tunisia), and Tashkent (Uzbekistan) were the cheapest cities of the lot.
Karachi (Pakistan) and Almaty (Kazakhstan) stood somewhere in the middle, and Ahmedabad (India), Chennai (India), Algiers (Algeria), Bangalore (India), and Colombo were on the pricier side of the cheapest cities.
Major findings
“This is the fastest rate for at least 20 years, reflecting a global cost-of-living crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine and continuing COVID-19 restrictions in China,” EIU Experts noted.
EIU determined that the city with the highest inflation rate right now is Caracas in Venezuela, where the cost of living prices have gone up by 132% since last year.
The intelligence unit also found that the price of a litre of gas rose by 22% year-on-year on average, around the world.
The EIU predicts that price increases will ease in 2023 as the global economy slows down and supply chain issues are resolved.
“Unless the war in Ukraine escalates, we predict that commodity prices for energy, food and for supplies such as metals are likely to fall sharply in 2023 compared with 2022 levels,
although they are likely to stay higher than previous levels,” the report concludes.