The Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of The Economics Group, the sister company to The Economist Newspaper. Also, EIU is considered to be the world’s leader in global business intelligence which helps to understand how the world is changing every day.
This is how much money tourists spend in Hungary
Világgazdaság reported EIU’s fresh list about the most expensive and cheapest cities in the world. The Worldwide Cost of Living 2019 represents global cities with the highest and lowest cost of living.
In the research, EIU examines the difference in prices in more than 160 products and services in 133 cities. These are for example the cost of travelling, food, houses, flats, etc. The research was established to help multinational companies’ employees to plan their budget when they are travelling to a foreign country. In the past years, the list has been profoundly affected by inflation and several other changing in the international currency market.
In the history of the EIU, this is the first time when three cities got the first place and the title of the most expensive cities in the world: Paris, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
In these cities, the cost of living is higher by 7% according to New York City which is said to be the index city regarding the cost of living. The top ten most expensive cities are mostly European, but some of them are Asian. Switzerland has two cities in the top ten, and only Singapore managed to keep its place on the list. Besides the Japanese Osaka, two American metropolises got into the top ten: New York City and Los Angeles.
Changing in the currencies rearranged the list entirely. For example, Istanbul and Buenos Aires used to be cities in the top twenty, but now they fell back twenty-eight places. On the other hand, Sofia, which was a cheap city, took twenty-nine places forward which is due to the government’s plan to introduce Euro in the country.
Among the 133 cities, Budapest is the 105th which makes it one of the cheapest one in the region. Moreover, the Hungarian capital fell back to four places since last year’s statistics and became less expensive since 2018.
The world’s cheapest cities are located in Asia: Caracas in Venezuela and Damascus in Syria which is due to serious political and economic conflicts.
Find the report HERE
Source: www.vg.hu, www.eiu.com (Wordwide Cost of Living 2019)
