Everything
If we’re being honest, it’s somewhat comforting knowing that Sydney, Australia dropped out of the 10 most expensive cities in the world.
Every year, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) releases its Worldwide Cost of Living report, an in-depth analysis of the economic landscape of major cities across the globe. Within the report, the EIU lists the world’s most expensive cities and dependent on the strength of the country’s dollar, financial standing among many other factors come to an accurate conclusion. And this year, history was made.
For the first time in the survey’s history, three cities share the title of the world’s most expensive city: Singapore, Hong Kong and France’s capital, Paris. The top ten is largely split between Asia and Europe, with Singapore representing the only city in the top ten that has maintained its ranking from the previous year. In the rest of Asia, Osaka in Japan and Seoul in South Korea join Singapore and Hong Kong in the top ten. Additionally, Sydney, Australia dropped from the top ten after it placed tenth in last year’s report.
Comparing more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services, the EIU then ranked the cities. From the price of food and beverages, utilities, transport and personal care, the survey went as far as too look at the average price of bread, haircuts and alcohol. In New York, the average US$ price of a 1kg loaf of bread costs $8.33, while comparatively the same product in one of the cheapest cities in the world, Lagos, Nigeria costs $1.16. While the conditions of living are hugely different, its an interesting perspective.
As the report specifies, the cost can vary year to year and depends on how strong its dollar is compared to world’s currency as well as what the current political landscape look like as well as conditions of living.
“After an encouraging albeit slower 2018, The Economist Intelligence Unit expects 2019 to proceed along similar lines, with global growth slowing further this year and reaching its nadir in 2020. External conditions deteriorated late last year owing to the USChina trade war and externalities related to this are expected to continue throughout 2019.”
