[Asia Round-up] Singapore named world’s most expensive city

(Photo : Xinhua/NEWSis)

Singapore is now ranked as the most expensive city in the world, according to a new survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that compares the cost of living between 131 cities using New York as a base city. A 40 percent currency appreciation over the last decade coupled with solid inflation has pushed Singapore up the ranking. The world’s 10 most expensive cities include Paris, Oslo, Zurich, Sydney, Caracas, Geneva, Melbourne, Tokyo and Copenhagen. Some argue that the EIU report does not reflect the consumption patterns of ordinary people, but it focuses on high-living foreigners. They say the basket of items the study used to compute the cost of living were based on the habits of Western expats. But it is a fact that Singapore has some structurally expensive items such as car costs.