Survey nominates world’s most expensive cities

Singapore and Zurich are the world’s most expensive cities this year, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research and analysis branch of The Economist Group, revealed in its Worldwide Cost of Living survey released this week.

Singapore maintained its position as the world’s most expensive city for the ninth time in the last 11 years, according to the findings. The city state has the globe’s highest transport prices, and is also one of the most expensive for clothing, groceries, and alcohol, the survey showed.

Zurich moved up from sixth place to tie with Singapore due to rising prices for food, household goods and recreation, as well as the strength of the Swiss franc. New York dropped to third place, tying with Geneva, while Hong Kong was fifth.

Rounding out the top ten were Paris, Copenhagen, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv. The survey was conducted prior to last month’s escalation of hostilities in Gaza, the report notes.

Western Europe accounted for four of the top ten most expensive cities due to persistently high inflation, especially in groceries and clothing, the survey showed. Russia’s major cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, dropped in the rankings due to the effect of Ukraine-related sanctions on the ruble’s exchange rate, the researchers said.

The survey analyzed prices on more than 200 goods and services in 173 major global cities. On average, prices in all categories have spiked by 7.4% from last year in local-currency terms, the researchers found. This was below the record 8.1% jump reported last year, but significantly higher than in the previous five years. Utility prices appeared to grow at the slowest pace over the past year in most cities, while grocery prices showed the strongest gains.

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