Today in Duh, The Economist has included Sydney and Melbourne in its annual list of the Top 10 Most Expensive Cities In The World In Which To Struggle To Make A Living as the world’s fifth and sixth costliest fiscal sinkholes respectively.
Using a cost of living index developed by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit, the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey assessed the frugality of 131 cities worldwide by comparing the costs of more than 400 items across 160 goods and services, including “food, drink, clothing, household supplies, rents, transport, utility bills and recreational costs.”
The inclusion of Sydney and Melbourne in the Top 10, followed by Brisbane and Perth in the shared 21st place and Adelaide at thirty-seven, can apparently be attributed to “sustained increases in the cost of living for Australian cities driven by the long-term appreciation of the Australian dollar”; at least, that’s what the survey notes when accounting for the high price we pay for living in best, second best, coolest, hipper-than-Williamsburg-est and most-liveable cities in the world [in that order].
Singapore, Paris, Oslo and Zurich preceded Sydney as the world’s most exorbitant cities; Geneva, Caracas, Tokyo and Copenhagen rounded out the Top 10.
Despite their constant protestations otherwise, New York fared surprisingly well by placing 26th, while Mumbai, Karachi, New Delhi, Damascus, Kathmandu, Algiers, Bucharest, Panama City, Jeddah and Riyadh came in as the least expensive cities in which to live, mostly due to their “well-documented security issues, domestic unrest” and presumably terrible espresso. BRB:
via The Economist, H/T The ABC
