The Economist, a British financial paper, has published its latest list of the most and least expensive cities to live in, and although it’s about living rather than visiting, the rankings won’t surprise most travelers.
The familiar names at the top are Zurich and Singapore, tied at #1, followed by Geneva and New York tied at #2, and then Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Paris, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen and San Francisco.
The index is based on a survey of 200 products and service. The Economist says that although prices rose an average of 7.4% last year, down a bit from 8.1% the year before, they are still way above the average of 2.9% for the previous five years.
Oh, and where to go to live cheap? Definitely not in Europe! The paper’s list of the cheapest goes all the way down to Damascus, Syria, where the cost of living is just 1/8 of that in Zurich and Singapore. Other literally low-rent choices include Tehran, Tripoli, Karachi, Tashkent and Tunis.
