The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)’s report “Worldwide cost of living 2018” shows that Bucharest ranks the ninth cheapest major city in the world, and the cheapest in Europe.
Economic and political instability are the main factors influencing the lowering of the relative living cost.
Syria’s capital, Damascus is the cheapest city in the world. Joining Damascus at the bottom is Venezuela’s capital, Caracas and Kazakhstan’s business centre, Almaty, in the second and third position respectively.
Others in the 10 cheapest cities list include Lagos at the 4th place, Bengaluru (5th), Karachi (6th), Algiers (7th), Chennai (8th) and New Delhi (10th).
On the other side, Singapore retained its title as the world’s most expensive city for the fifth consecutive year. Singapore was ranked ahead of Paris placed second on the list, Zurich (3rd) and Hong Kong (4th).
According to the EIU survey, Oslo is the 5th most expensive city in the world, followed by Geneva (6th), Seoul (7th), Copenhagen (8th), Tel Aviv (9th) and Sydney (10th).
The Worldwide Cost of Living is a biannual Economist Intelligence Unit survey that compares more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services. These include food, drink, clothing, household supplies and personal care items, home rents, transport, utility bills, private schools, domestic help and recreational costs.