Life in Moscow has risen in price because of the ruble

After four years of leading the world’s cities in terms of cost of living according to ECA International, Hong Kong has lost first place to New York. In the largest city in the United States, life has become more expensive due to rising rents and prices. Third place in the ranking, like a year ago, was taken by Geneva. And Moscow, along with a strong ruble, soared from 62nd to 25th place.

For the first time in five years, Hong Kong has lost the top spot in the ranking of the world’s most expensive cities to live in. The leader in 2022 was New York, where commodity prices and rental costs grew at a faster pace than in Hong Kong. These data are provided in the annual ranking cities of the world according to the cost of living, compiled by the American consulting company ECA International.

“The cost of goods and services in Hong Kong has risen to the highest levels in recent years. This shows that the city has not been left unaffected by the wave of inflation that we saw around the world last year,” explains ECA International Asia Director Lee Kuane. However, the expert notes that Hong Kong still fell in the rankings, because “the increase in prices for everyday goods and services was limited by the fall in the cost of rent in the city.”

The authors of the ranking note a decrease in the number of Asian cities in the top 10, as well as a decrease in the positions of all Japanese and Chinese cities. As in Hong Kong, many Asian cities saw lower rents and inflation rates were slightly lower than those in other regions. So, Yokohama moved from 17th to 41st place, Taipei – from 20th to 31st, etc. The only exceptions to this trend are Singapore, Seoul and Yangon, where rent rose in price due to insufficient supply on the market housing rental.

American cities, which in previous years were only slightly behind Asian cities in terms of cost of living, have moved up in the rankings this year due to the strengthening of the dollar and rising inflation.

The top 10 most expensive cities in the world, along with New York, included San Francisco, which last year ranked 11th. In addition to them and Hong Kong, the top 10 includes Geneva and London, which retained their 3rd and 4th places respectively from last year, Singapore, which rose from 13th to 5th place, Zurich (up from 7th to 6th th place), Tel Aviv (down from 6th to 8th), Seoul (up from 10th to 9th) and Tokyo (down from 5th to 10th).

In Europe, as the authors of the rating note, the picture is not uniform. More than half of the European cities included in the ranking have risen over the year due to rising inflation. The exceptions were Paris, where inflation was lower than in other cities in the euro area, as well as the cities of Northern Europe. So, Oslo dropped by 9 positions, to 28th place, and Stavanger – by 14 positions, to 40th place. Experts call Pakistani Karachi (207th place) the cheapest place to live in the world.

Significant changes in the rating, according to ECA International, were made by the military conflict in Ukraine, which affected both the cost of living in Russia and Ukraine, as well as in neighboring states.

Renting housing has become more expensive in those countries where Ukrainian refugees have settled. First of all, this affected the cities of Poland, where the cost of rent soared by 25-50%, which is why Krakow rose in the ranking by 23 positions, and Warsaw – by 11 positions, to 178th and 158th places, respectively. Similarly, the influx of Russians who left Russia due to the military conflict affected the cost of living in Dubai, Yerevan, Nicosia and Tbilisi. Rental prices in Dubai increased by 30% and the city moved up from 23rd to 12th place.

This trend is even more noticeable in the Georgian capital, where demand for housing significantly exceeded supply. As a result, Tbilisi soared 65 positions up to 102nd place. But most of all, the influx of Russians has affected the cost of living in Istanbul, which, combined with an increase in inflation of more than 80%, has led to the fact that the city has risen in the ranking by 95 positions to 108th place.

As for Moscow itself, along with the strengthening of the ruble, the Russian capital moved from 62nd to 25th line. For the same reason, St. Petersburg moved up from 147th to 116th place.

Alena Miklashevskaya