Over the last decade, Singapore has been moving up the ranks of the world’s most expensive cities to live in.
The country has topped 131 cities globally to become the number one in 2014, reported the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).The high cost of running a car combined with the city’s strong currency, the Singapore Dollar (SGD), alongside soaring utility bills have contributed to obtaining the top position. Additionally, Singapore is the most expensive place in the world to buy clothes.The previous most expensive city was Tokyo, who topped the list in 2013. Other cities in the top five include Paris, Oslo, Zurich and Sidney; Tokyo have now fallen to sixth place. The top ten cities in 2014 are all Asian and Australasian cities, as well as a few European countries.“Improving sentiment in structurally expensive European cities combined with the continued rise of Asian hubs, means that these two regions continue to supply most of the world’s most expensive cities,” the editor of the EIU report Jon Copestake stated. “But Asian cities also continue to make up many of the world’s cheapest, especially in the Indian subcontinent,” Copestake continued.Although Tokyo have fallen from the top of the list, they still retain the top spot for the cost of groceries and everyday food items. Most other Asian cities at the top of the list are also there for this reason.At the other end of the spectrum, India’s major cities –including Mumbai and New Delhi – were found to be among the least expensive in the world. Mumbai’s prices are kept low by large income inequality. The low wages of many of the city’s workers keep spending low, and Government subsidies have helped them stay that way.Damascus in Syria saw the largest drop, becoming the fourth cheapest city in the world as the country’s ongoing conflict has led to plummeting prices.This study was conducted using the EIU’S Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, a relocation tool that uses New York City as a base. It looks at more than 400 individual prices in order to determine a result.
