SG, New York are the world’s most expensive cities

This is the 8th time that SG ranked first in the Worldwide Cost of Living survey.

Singapore was crowned anew as the world’s most expensive city by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). This marks the eighth time in 10 years that the Lion City has topped the EIU’s Worldwide Cost of Living (WCOL) survey.

This year, however, the Lion City shared the top spot with New York.

EIU said a stronger currency and higher inflation rate pushed Singapore and New York to the top of the rank.

Apart from these two, EIU said structural factors such as competition or high demand play a key role in determining the cost of living as well.

“We convert local currency prices into US dollars to calculate each city’s index. Our rankings are also driven by exchange rates against the dollar,” EIU explained.

Overall, EIU said prices have risen by an average of 8.1% in local-currency terms over the past year in the world’s biggest cities, marking the highest inflation rate recorded since digital WCOL surveys began almost 20 years ago.