Paris has climbed to number two position in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s ranking of the world’s most expensive cities.
According to the leading research group’s latest “Worldwide Cost of Living Report”, Paris is now one of the world’s most expensive places to live, second only to Singapore and on a par with Zurich.
Singapore has been named the most expensive city on the list for five years in a row, whilst Paris has moved up five ranks from 2017, replacing Hong Kong in second place.
Five of the top ten priciest cities in the report are within Europe, but out of these five, Paris is the only city in the Eurozone that makes the top ten. Within Europe, Paris, Vienna, Helsinki, Frankfurt, and Dublin are the five Eurozone countries in the European top ten. The remaining five – Zurich, Oslo, Geneva, Copenhagen, and Reykjavik – are outside the Eurozone. Alongside Paris and Zurich, the only other European cities to make the global top ten are Oslo in fifth place, Geneva in sixth, and Copenhagen in eighth place.
To arrive at these rankings, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) compares 133 cities using a basket of goods and services that involves more than 400 different prices. The report uses New York, which is given an index of 100, as a benchmark by which to rank other cities. According to the report, European cities tend to be pricier than other cities in the entertainment, recreation, personal care, and household categories.
According to the EIU, currency fluctuations are the leading cause behind changes in rankings. Tokyo and Osaka are conspicuously absent from this year’s league tables, largely owing to inflation. In 2016, London also fell from the top ten due to the devaluation of the pound following Brexit.
But despite the strong euro, Paris remains the only Eurozone country in the global top ten. The EIU commented that the French capital remained “structurally extremely expensive to live in, with only alcohol, transport and tobacco offering value for money compared with other European cities’.
