New York, Singapore top rankings for world's most expensive cities

5:29 pm on 2 December 2022

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 27: Statue City Cruises, part of City Experiences, celebrates the Statue of Liberty's 136th birthday on October 28th in New York City on October 27, 2022 in New York City. Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Statue City Cruises/AFP (Photo by Eugene Gologursky / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

New York shares the most expensive honours with Singapore. Photo: AFP

The world's most expensive cities are jointly New York and Singapore, according to the annual Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey.

It is the first time New York has topped the rankings. Last year's number one, Tel Aviv, is now placed third.

Overall, the average cost of living in the world's biggest cities is up 8.1 percent this year, the EIU survey reports.

The war in Ukraine and Covid's impact on supply chains were identified as factors behind the increase.

Inflation was particularly high in Istanbul - with prices up by 86 percent - Buenos Aires (64 percent) and Tehran (57 percent).

High inflation in the US was one of the reasons for New York topping the list.

Los Angeles and San Francisco also made the top 10 - earlier this year, US inflation was the highest in more than 40 years.

The strengthening dollar was also a factor in the US cities' prominence.

Moscow and St Petersburg rose through the rankings by 88 and 70 places, to 37th and 73rd place respectively, partly as a result of Western sanctions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Crashed cars are left outside an apartment building destroyed in the shelling of Russian troops, Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine is having an impact on the cost of living in Russia. Photo: NurPhoto via AFP

The survey compares costs in US dollars for goods and services in 173 cities. Kyiv was not included in this year's review.

The EIU compared more than 400 individual prices across over 200 products and services from 172 cities around the globe.

Upasana Dutt, who was responsible for leading the research, said the war in Ukraine, Western sanctions on Russiam and China's zero-Covid policies "have caused supply-chain problems".

"That, combined with rising interest rates and exchange-rate shifts, have resulted in a cost-of-living crisis across the world," Dutt said.

The average price rise across the 172 cities in the EIU's survey had been "the strongest we've seen in the 20 years for which we have digital data".