Singapore turned out to be the only city in the ranking that retained its previous year's position
Paris, which was in second place last year, rose to first and became one of four European cities in the top 10 of the list. One of the report's authors, Roxana Slavcheva, says that Paris has regularly been in the top ten of the ranking since 2003, remaining an "incredibly expensive place to live."
As BBC notes, the ranking includes 133 cities in total. The top ten most expensive also include Zurich, Geneva, Osaka, Seoul, Copenhagen, New York, Tel Aviv and Los Angeles (the last two cities shared tenth place).
Tel Aviv was only in 28th place five years ago, but now it has entered the top 10 and is tied with Los Angeles. This growth is partly explained by the fact that the Israeli currency (shekel) has appreciated. Also, transport costs in Tel Aviv are on average 64% higher than in New York.
London ended up in 22nd place – together with Melbourne and Milan. Moscow dropped 16 positions over the year and took 102nd place.
The compilers of the ranking assessed the cost of living in different cities by comparing prices for basic goods and services – for example, they considered how much bread costs in a city and how much a haircut would cost. Prices in different cities were compared with New York prices, which served as a benchmark for assessing the cost of living.
For example, the average cost of a women's haircut in Paris is $119.04. In Zurich, such a haircut would cost $73.97, and in Osaka – $53.46. "In European cities, housing is usually expensive, services are expensive, and leisure and entertainment are expensive," says Roxana Slavcheva.
Inflation and fluctuations in national currency exchange rates have led to a significant decrease in the cost of living in major cities of a number of countries. For example, cities in Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, and Venezuela moved to lower positions in the ranking due to the depreciation of national currencies.
In Venezuela, inflation over the past year was about 1,000,000%, and the capital of the country – Caracas – ended up at the very bottom of the ranking, that is, the cheapest city to live in the world. In the penultimate line of the ranking is the capital of Syria, Damascus.
The authors of the report note that overall the number of cities where life has become significantly cheaper has increased – mainly due to political and economic upheavals in a number of countries.
The ten most expensive cities in the world:
Singapore (Singapore), Paris (France), Hong Kong (China), Zurich (Switzerland), Geneva (Switzerland), Osaka (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Copenhagen (Denmark), New York (USA), Tel Aviv (Israel), Los Angeles (USA).
The ten cheapest cities in the world:
Caracas (Venezuela), Damascus (Syria), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bangalore (India), Karachi (Pakistan), Lagos (Nigeria), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Chennai (India), New Delhi (India).