The city of Lagos has been ranked among world cheapest city, being the only African city on the list, with Caracas in Venezuela as the first.
The survey which is done annually, was carried out by Economist Intelligence Unit, having Lagos share sixth position with Karachi in Pakistan The Economist Intelligence Unit noted that costs in the cheapest cities were low by Western standards, majorly because low wages, which is obtainable in such areas limit household spending.
It also said a “growing number of locations” were becoming cheaper because of the impact of political or economic disruption, citing crisis-hit Caracas in Venezuela and war-torn Damascus in Syria, which are at the bottom of the list.
“There is a considerable element of risk in some of the world’s cheapest cities,” the report said. “Put simply, cheaper cities also tend to be less liveable.”The other cities were, Damascus (Syria), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bangalore (India), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Chennai (India) and New Delhi (India) respectively.
The survey compares the cost of 160 items, such as food, drink, transport, utility bills, and rent, in 133 cities. It then tracks whether prices have gone up or down by comparing them with the cost of living in New York, which is used as a benchmark. In this year’s survey, three cities shared first position as the world’s most expensive city. They comprise of Singapore in Singapore, Paris in France and Hong Kong in China.
In the survey, Zurich (Switzerland), Geneva (Switzerland), Osaka (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Copenhagen (Denmark), New York (U.S.), Tel Aviv (Israel) and Los Angeles (U.S.) were the other cities ranked among the most expensive.The annual index was designed to help companies calculate cost-of-living expenses for expatriates and business travellers.
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