After inflation rose this year, New York and Singapore are jointly the most expensive cities in the world, a yearly poll released on Thursday revealed.
The two overtook Tel Aviv, which had previously ranked first in the Worldwide Cost of Living index released by the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit. Tel Aviv now ranks third (EIU). According to the poll, “the cost of living in the world’s largest cities is rising as the conflict in Ukraine and ongoing pandemic restrictions impair supply chains, notably for oil and food.”
While Damascus and Tripoli continued to be the least expensive cities, New York surpassed them for the first time. In the 172 large cities included in the EIU poll, which was performed between August and September, prices soared by an average of 8.1 percent.
According to the poll, “the influence of the strong US dollar on our city rankings” is also demonstrated.50,000 global values were translated into dollars in total. The US dollar has increased this year as a result of the Federal Reserve’s significant increases in interest rates in an effort to control inflation that has been at a 30-year high.
Los Angeles and San Francisco also entered the top ten along with New York. Moscow and St. Petersburg were the two cities that moved up the most, “soaring by 88 and 70 places respectively as prices rose under Western sanctions and booming oil markets backed the rouble.”
“The conflict in Ukraine, Western sanctions against Russia, and China’s zero-covid policies have generated supply-chain challenges that, when paired with increasing interest rates and exchange-rate swings, have resulted in a cost-of-living crisis throughout the globe,” said Upasana Dutt, who oversaw the research.
With the average price increase across the 172 cities in our survey being the strongest we’ve seen in the 20 years for which we have digital data, she continued, “We can definitely see the impact in this year’s index.”