Zurich and Singapore have been crowned the most expensive cities in the world in a new report.
New York, which shared first place with Singapore last year, has moved into second place along with Geneva in the 2023 Worldwide Cost of Living (WCOL) survey.
Third on the podium is Hong Kong, while London ranks lower at (still quite pricey) ninth out of the 173 cities surveyed.
At the other end of the scale, the Syrian capital Damascus is named the cheapest city and the Iranian capital Tehran the second cheapest.
The rankings, updated twice a year by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), was prepared by analyzing the price of 200 products in the 173 cities, including food, clothing, gasoline and utility bills.
Singapore has been declared the most expensive city in the world
Zurich (above) shares the top spot on the list of ‘most expensive cities’ with Singapore
Behind Hong Kong in fourth place is Los Angeles, followed by Paris (fifth); Tel Aviv and Copenhagen (joint sixth); and San Francisco (seventh).
The cheapest cities after Damascus and Tehran are Tripoli in Libya (third); Karachi, Pakistan (fourth); Tashkent, Uzbekistan (fifth); Tunis, Tunisia (sixth); Lusaka, Zambia (seventh); and Ahmedabad, India (eighth).
Lagos, Nigeria, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, complete the list of the top ten cheapest locations, tied for ninth place.
The EIU report that produced these rankings was launched today, November 30.
It concluded that the global cost of living crisis continues, with the price of everyday goods and services rising by an average of 7.4 percent annually.
Geneva, above, tied for second in the 2023 Worldwide Cost of Living (WCOL) survey
New York, which shared first place with Singapore last year, has moved into joint second position with Geneva. In the photo: the Manhattan Bridge in New York
However, according to the report, household energy and water bills are the least affected by inflation worldwide (out of ten categories surveyed).
This suggests that the increase in energy prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is easing, it added.
“However, food prices continue to rise sharply,” the report says, as “many manufacturers and retailers have passed on higher costs to consumers.”
London will be the ninth most expensive city in 2023
Prices have also been affected by “the increasing frequency of extreme weather events,” which are impacting the supply chain, it added.
In the US, most of the 22 cities examined in the study have fallen in the rankings of the world’s most expensive places.
New York came in third, the report said, partly due to price increases for eggs, beef and recreational activities.
For other items such as petrol and clothing, prices remain ‘moderate’.
Syria’s capital, Damascus, emerges as the cheapest city in the world. Pictured: Part of the city’s Omayad Mosque, photographed in 2020
The Iranian capital Tehran, pictured here with the Alborz Mountains in the background, will be the second cheapest city in the world in 2023
The study was conducted before the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, which “affected exchange rates in Israel” and may also have affected prices, researchers point out.
Commenting on the findings, WCOL head Upasana Dutt said price increases have subsided since China lifted its Covid-19 restrictions last year and since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But “the cost of living crisis is hardly over,” he added, “and price levels remain well above historical trends.”
Sharing WCOL’s forecasts for next year, Mr Dutt said they expect inflation to continue to slow, but “risks remain”, including the consequences of the war between Israel and Hamas and rising temperatures in the Eastern Pacific (El Nino).