Sydney ranks among the top 10 cities in the world with the highest cost of living. (photo by Radio 7)
Sydney overtook New York, London to rank among the world's top 10 countries and regions with the highest cost of living, the Guardian and Radio 7 reported yesterday, according to a survey released by economics's Think Tank (Economist Intelligence Unit) yesterday (< 2018 Global cost of living > (Worldwide Cost of Living 2018).
It is understood that this year's global cost-of-living report analyses 130 cities around the world, comparing national clothing, food, transport, rental expenses and utilities, private school fees, family care services and entertainment costs, and so on. The prices of more than 160 products and services are compared.
Singapore is once again the "most expensive city" in the world, according to the report, with the top cities unchanged. The other two Asian cities, Hong Kong, Seoul also ranked in the top 10, fourth and sixth respectively.
In the Asia-Pacific region, although Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong are the three most expensive cities to buy daily necessities, Tokyo is no longer the world's most expensive city after 2013 because of low inflation in Japan, and Osaka has fallen out of the top 10.
The overall cost of living in mainland China remained stable, with Shanghai ranked 21st, the highest among mainland cities, followed by Shenzhen, ranked 23rd, and Beijing at 46th.
Sydney's ranking rose four places from 2017 to 10th place, following Israel's second-largest city, Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv).
The world's ten most expensive cities in 2018. (source: Think Tank), economics
In Europe, with the exception of Paris, where the cost of living is the second highest in the world, non-euro-zone countries have higher living costs than other euro-zone countries, with Zurich, Switzerland, Oslo, Norway, Geneva, Switzerland and Copenhagen, Denmark, in the top 10. This is because the price of household goods in these cities, leisure and entertainment costs are quite high.
The cost of living in Britain, which has not yet succeeded in Brexit, has fallen. London ranked 30th in the list of the world's most expensive cities. The report's authors say a sharp fall in the pound following the Brexit vote has led to lower prices in the UK, with overseas tourists enjoying their cheapest prices in more than 20 years in London.
In this year's report, America's cities were not seen in the top 10. New York fell from 9th place in 2017 to 13 this year, while Los Angeles fell from 11th to 14th.