Yesterday I shared the 10 most expensive cities in the world. Today, we’ll explore the 10 least expensive cities in the world.
Each year The Economist publishes a list of the most and least expensive cities in the world. Figures are derived from the metrics I outline below. Here are the 10 cheapest cities in the world:
10. New Delhi, India
9. Bucharest, Romania
8. Chennai, India
7. Algiers, Algeria
6. Karachi, Pakistan
5. Bangalore, India
4. Lagos, Nigeria
3. Almaty, Kazakhstan
2. Caracas, Venezuela
1. Damascus, Syria
NOTES
How helpful is the list when a city is cheap only in theory? I’m talking about your Venezuela. It’s true that the value of the Venezuelan bolívar has plummeted. But the country is also facing hyperinflation and a horrific supply shortage. Store shelves are often empty and citizens wait hours in line for their rations of food staples each month. Even so, cigarettes are nearly free and gasoline is free. You can’t get cheaper than that..
Damascus, meanwhile, is akin to West Berlin surrounded by East Germany. While the Syrian Civil War wages on, life is (fairly) normal. Markets are still bustling and people can walk safely in the streets. But the civil war has taken a dramatic toll on the Syrian Pound. While Syrians themselves might not feel it, Damascus is incredibly cheap right now.
METHODOLOGY
In case you’re wondering how these numbers were compiled:
More than 50,000 individual prices are collected in each survey, conducted each March and September and published in June and December. Economist Intelligence Unit researchers survey a range of stores: supermarkets, mid-priced stores and higher-priced speciality outlets. Prices reflect costs for more than 160 items in each city. These are not recommended retail prices or manufacturers’ costs; they are what the paying customer is charged.
Prices gathered are then converted into a central currency (US dollars) using the prevailing exchange rate and weighted in order to achieve comparative indices. The cost-of-living index uses an identical set of weights that is internationally based and not geared towards the spending pattern of any specific nationality. Items are individually weighted across a range of categories, and a comparative index is produced using the relative difference by weighted item.
CONCLUSION
I find it hard to believe that Bucharest is cheaper than any city in India. Even so, the list does not have any real surprises. Just because Damascus and Caracas are the cheapest cities does not mean I’ll be heading to either one anytime soon for vacation…
Read the full report (.pdf).
image: Abdulsalam Haykal / Flickr CC 2.0
Syria is not experiencing a civil war. It is experiencing a proxy fight by western powers for a gas line to be run through it by Sauds, Qatari, and “other” western powers. Look through the western propaganda and see it for what it really is, as opposed to the same false western narrative.
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Going to have to make a point to get to Romania while its cheap. I do like to leverage the strength of the dollar when I book international trips. Helps me be able to do more than what I might do when we are at a disadvantage, like in the UK
@Tony: it’s far more complicated than that! The best analogy I can give you is what happened to Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
New Delhi is cheap if you focus on the slums, sure – and while certainly cheaper compared to many Western cities, there are plenty of other places in the world that are much cheaper (and much nicer) to visit.
Having been to Romania fairly recently, I can attest that it is indeed dirt cheap. And a wonderful place to visit to boot. Local hotels at least cost next to nothing. Maybe saying it’s India-level cheap is a stretch, but not by much (and it’s certainly cheaper than Mumbai, which isn’t cheap at all).