International Desk

Singapore and Switzerland’s Zurich are the most expensive cities in the world, the Economics Intelligence Unit (EIU) revealed in this year’s survey report on Thursday.

Singapore maintained its pole position as the world’s most expensive city for the ninth time in the last eleven years, tying with Zurich of Switzerland and overtaking New York of US, which fell to third place this year.

The EIU said Zurich moved up from sixth place to join Singapore at the top, bumping New York (which tied with Singapore for first place last year) down to third place.

Zurich, which is back at the top after three years, moved up due to the strength of the Swiss franc, as well as high prices for groceries, household goods and recreation.

Overall, the top ten this year consists of two Asian cities (Singapore and Hong Kong), four European cities (Zurich, Geneva, Paris and Copenhagen), three US cities (New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco) and Tel Aviv in Israel.

The survey was conducted before the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which has affected the exchange rates in Israel and may have made it harder to procure some goods in Tel Aviv, thereby affecting prices.

Globally, utility prices (household energy and water bills) witnessed the slowest inflation of the ten categories covered in our survey.

This was the fastest-rising category in 2022 and the moderation suggests an easing of the energy price shocks caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Grocery, on the other hand, saw the fastest pace of price growth.

Food inflation has been sticky across the world as many manufacturers and retailers have passed on higher costs to consumers and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events continues to keep supply-side risks elevated.

This year’s Worldwide Cost of Living survey found that, on average, prices had risen by 7.4 percent year on year in local currency terms for over 200 commonly used goods and services.

This marks a decline from the record 8.1 percent increase reported last year, but price growth remains significantly higher than the trend in 2017-21.

Although this year’s survey covers 173 of the world’s major cities, the global average has been calculated by excluding Kyiv (which was not surveyed in 2022) and Caracas (which continues to face hyperinflation), as was the case last year.