World’s most expensive, cheapest cities disclosed

Paris streets winter lights. The city named among three expensive cities in the world. (FILE PHOTO)

LONDON, United Kingdom – The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU) has revealed through a survey, the 2019 most expensive and cheapest cities in the world.

EIU is the world leader in global business intelligence. Through surveys, they help businesses, the financial sector and governments to understand how the world is changing and how that creates opportunities to be seized and risks to be managed.

Paris, the French capital has come top of a ranking of the world’s most expensive cities, alongside Hong Kong and Singapore.

Unlike the previous years, it’s the first time three cities have shared the top spot in the 30-year history of the annual Economist Intelligence Unit survey, which compares prices in 133 cities globally.

Paris, which was ranked second most expensive last year – is the only eurozone city in the top ten.

The survey compares the cost of common items, such as bread, in 133 cities.

It then tracks whether prices have gone up or down by comparing them to the cost of living in New York, which is used as a benchmark.

Haircut comparisons

According to the survey, Paris had been among the top ten most expensive cities since 2003 and was “extremely expensive” to live in.

“Only alcohol, transport and tobacco offer value for money compared with other European cities,” revealed.

The average cost of a women’s haircut, for example, costs $119.04 in Paris (UGX441,600), compared to $73.97 (UGX274,500) in Zurich and $53.46 (UGX198,300)in Japanese city Osaka.

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(US)

10. Tel Aviv (Israel)

Los Angeles (US)

On the other hand, Inflation and volatile currency fluctuations helped drive changes in this year’s ranking, with places like Argentina, Brazil, Turkey and Venezuela all seeing a sharp fall in their cost of living ranking.

Caracas, the vibrant capital city of Venezuela, is a worthy destination for U.S. travellers.

Caracas in Venezuela, where inflation neared 1,000,000% last year forcing the government to launch a new currency, was ranked the least expensive city in this year’s survey.

The price of a cup of coffee in the capital Caracas doubled to 400 bolivars ($0.62; £0.50) (UGX2300) in the space of just a week last December, according to Bloomberg.

Damascus in Syria was ranked the world’s second cheapest city.

The Economist Intelligence Unit said a “growing number of locations” were becoming cheaper due to the impact of political or economic disruption.

The ten cheapest cities in the world