Before determining which city is considered the most expensive in the world, it is necessary to determine the fundamental criteria that affect it. World analysts determine the high cost of living in a specific locality, focusing on the average cost of food, residential and non-residential real estate, transportation services, household goods, medicines, various services provided to residents. "Zero", that is, the starting point, is the cost of all of the above in New York. 131 cities of the world take part in the assessment. What changes have taken place during the year?
Top 10
Annually, the rating of expensive cities is changing. Cities move from one position to another, sometimes there are "newcomers" in return for those who left the rating of "old men". In 2014, the most expensive cities in the world surprised the public somewhat, since Singapore became the leader of the rating compiled by the analytical division of the Economist Intelligence Unit (The Economist, Great Britain).
A decade ago, for this city-state there was not even a place in the top-ten, but the stable currency, high cost of servicing personal cars and the price of utilities were pressed from the first place of last year's winner, the city of Tokyo. And there is nothing surprising in this. Infrastructure in Singapore is developing at an incredibly fast pace, the investment climate is extremely attractive, the volume of production is constantly increasing, and the standard of living of the population is improving, although not so fast. In addition, Singapore holds leading positions in the rating of economic freedom, and the population here is disciplined, educated, which positively affects the welfare of the island city-state.
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Places from the second to the tenth were occupied by Paris, Oslo, Zurich, Sydney, Caracas, Geneva, Melbourne, Tokyo and Copenhagen, respectively. But the cheapest are recognized Kathmandu, Damascus, Karachi, New Delhi and Mumbai.
In fairness, we note that The Economist is not the only expert appraiser. Thus, the specialists of Mercer, focusing on the cost of living in the city for foreigners (expats), consider the most expensive in the world city of Luanda (Angola). The fact is that regular military and political crises led to the fact that only very well-off people can afford to buy safe housing. In addition, Luanda depends on imported goods, so the prices for them are extremely high.
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Leading city in the CIS
You will be surprised, but Moscow , firmly holding the leadership in recent years, has lost its position. It turned out that the most expensive city in the CIS and Russia is Khabarovsk. In Khabarovsk live much more than in the capital. This is evidenced by the analysts of the Public Chamber. The main discovery of 2014 is the incredibly high prices for medications and utilities. If everything is clear with the provision of electricity, heat and water to the population (the peculiarities of the geographical situation and the severity of the climate), then with the prices for medicines, 30% higher than the average for Russia, officials promise to understand in the near future. And that the food basket for residents of Khabarovsk is more expensive than other Russians, it was known before.
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If we talk about Russia, the rating of the most expensive cities is as follows:
- Khabarovsk
- Ekaterinburg
- Krasnoyarsk
At the same time, Moscow and St. Petersburg are only in the seventh and ninth place, respectively. Quite unexpected, right?