Singapore is the world's most expensive city to live in, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2018 released by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on Thursday (March 15). France's capital Paris and Zurich in Switzerland tied for the second place in the list.
Singapore retains the tag of world's most expensive place to live for the fifth year in a row.
Hong Kong and Oslo are featured in the fourth and fifth places respectively. Seoul and Geneva shared the sixth place, while Copenhagen (8), Tel Aviv (9) and Sydney (10) rounded out the rankings. The only city outside of Asia or Europe to appear in the top 10 was Tel Aviv.
Half of the ten most expensive cities in the world are based in Europe, with Paris, Zurich and Oslo among the ten priciest. Find out why in our latest report: https://t.co/B3c3tZ8M5A pic.twitter.com/SQRDdbFQDH
— The Economist Intelligence Unit (@TheEIU) 15 March 2018
However, some of the world's cheapest cities are in Asia. Three Indian cities are among cheapest in the world. New Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai are among the world's cheapest cities, according to the EIU survey.
The EIU's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey compares more than 400 individual prices across over 160 products and services in cities around the world. Based on this comparison, a ranking of the world's major cities by cost of living are made.
Syria's capital Damascus is the cheapest city in the world. It is followed by Caracas (Venezuela) and Almaty (Kazakhstan).
"India is tipped for rapid economic expansion, but in per-head terms, wage and spending growth will remain low. Income inequality means that low wages are the norm, limiting household spending and creating many tiers of pricing as well as strong competition from a range of retail sources," PTI reports quoting the EIU survey document. "Moreover, the cheap and plentiful supply of goods into cities from rural producers with short supply chains as well as government subsidies on some products has kept prices down, especially by Western standards", the report added.
Bangalore, Karachi, Algiers, Chennai, Bucharest and New Delhi are listed among the top ten cheapest cities to live.
