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EIU 2019 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey : Bucharest and Istanbul – the cheapest in Europe
Paris has been given the title of the world’s most expensive city along with Singapore and Hong Kong, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) 2019 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey.
It is “not surprising” that the French capital was high up in the ranking as it has been in the top 10 since 2003, report author Roxana Slavcheva told Euronews.
However, the fact that the city had jumped six places in two years was “not insignificant”.
The EIU considers and compares the average cost of more than 160 items — from food, toiletries and clothing, to domestic help, transport, and utility bills — in 133 cities across 93 countries.
London and Manchester, the two UK surveys included in the index, fell significantly in 2017 after the country’s Brexit referendum, and only ranked higher up in 2018 and 2019 respectively due to other cities scoring lower than in previous years.
Currency volatility has caused in Istanbul in Turkey to fall 48 places since 2018, Moscow to fall 16 and Saint Petersburg to fall 14.
The cheapest cities in Europe are Bucharest, ranking 118th in the world, and Istanbul, ranking 120th.
None of the European cities analysed fell in the top five cheapest cities of 2019, which included Caracas in Venezuela, Damascus in Syria, Tashkent in Uzbekistan, Almaty in Kazakhstan, and Bangalore in India.