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Hong Kong, Zurich and Paris are the three most expensive cities in the world, while Damascus ranks last in the report on the global cost of living published by the British weekly “The Economist”.
This is the second time that three cities share the first place in this study, which takes into account the prices of 138 goods and services in 133 major cities of all the world.
The prices of this basket of products have risen only around 0.3 points on average in the last year, mainly due to the effect of the covid-19 pandemic, which also meant that The main increases were in categories such as tobacco or recreational activities. – the latter includes electronic products – while the biggest falls occurred in clothing.
In addition to these three sectors, the Intelligence Unit of the British weekly “The Economist” analyzes other parameters, such as the amounts associated with rent, transport, education, food, drink or household and personal care items.
A complete list of the ten cities where life is most expensive is organized as follows: Hong Kong (China), Zurich (Switzerland), Paris (France), Singapore, Osaka (Japan), Tel Aviv (Israel), Copenhagen (Denmark) , New York, USA). United States), Geneva (Switzerland) and Los Angeles (United States).
Last year, the “top 3” were made up of Hong Kong, Singapore and Osaka, although in 2020 the latter two were due, in the case of the city-state, to an “exodus of foreign workers” and, in the case of the city’s economy, stagnant inflation and subsidies from the Japanese government for expenses like public transportation.
The city whose prices have evolved the most in the last year is Tehran, which rose 27 places in the table due to US sanctions, which made it difficult to supply goods to Iran.
Most Chinese cities have risen sharply (on the table) due to the US-China trade war, which has tested the resilience of the supply chain and raised consumer prices.
At the bottom of the table are five cities: in addition to the Syrian capital, Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Lusaka (Zambia), Caracas (Venezuela) and Almaty (Kazakhstan).
Latin America and Africa are the two regions where prices have fallen the most due to weak local currencies and increased poverty.
The exchange rate has been a key factor in determining the “ranking” of the cities in the study, as the dollar has weakened as the currencies of Western Europe and North Asia have strengthened.
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