Singapore and Paris are world's most expensive cities

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Fri, Mar 16, 2018, 06:19 PM

Singapore and Paris are worlds most expensive cities

Singapore, Mar 16: Singapore is the world's most expensive city for the fifth straight year in the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest Worldwide Cost of Living report, with Paris and Zurich, tied for second place.

Asia Pacific and European destinations dominated the ranks of costliest cities identified in the report released this week. Tokyo and Osaka were conspicuous in their absence from the top 10, edged out by low inflation. The EIU survey is designed to help companies calculate cost-of-living allowances and build compensation packages for expatriates and business travelers.

As recent as 2013, Tokyo was the world's costliest city to live in. The Japanese capital dropped seven places to 11th over the past year. Hong Kong, last year's second-most expensive city, slipped to fourth place.

The Southeast Asian financial centre was joined in the top 10 by Seoul, which ranked in seventh position, as well as Hong Kong.

However, some of the world's cheapest cities are still in Asia, such as India and Pakistan.

Europe, too, continues to be expensive - Paris, Zurich, Oslo, Geneva and Copenhagen appeared in the top 10. The only city outside of Asia or Europe to appear in the top 10 was Sydney.

Meanwhile, the weakening of the U.S. dollar in 2017 caused New York and Los Angeles to slip to 13th and 14th positions, respectively.

Though Asia is home to the world's most expensive places to live, it also has some of the most affordable. South Asian cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Karachi and New Delhi provided good value for money, the report noted. This year, the Syrian capital of Damascus and Venezuela's Caracas were ranked the world's cheapest.