Singapore and Zurich lead the ranking
CNN Travel has provided a list of the most expensive cities in the world in 2023. Since last year, this rating has undergone significant changes. Thus, in 2022, New York shared first place with Singapore. However, now Swiss Zurich has shifted America's financial center. Moscow and St. Petersburg have seriously lost ground, dropping to 142nd and 147th places, respectively.
The city-state of Singapore and Switzerland's Zurich have been named the world's most expensive cities in 2023. The latter has risen from sixth place since last year. This rise was explained by the strong Swiss franc, as well as high prices for food, household goods and leisure. The high cost of transport and clothing in Singapore was also noted.
While New York tied for first place last year with Singapore, the popular US destination, where prices rose 1.9% according to the study, fell to third place, tying with Geneva, Switzerland.
Hong Kong took fifth place, Los Angeles – sixth, and the “city of love” Paris took seventh place.
Israeli Tel Aviv shares eighth place with Danish Copenhagen. However, it is worth noting that the survey was conducted before the conflict between Israel and Hamas. San Francisco took tenth place.
If you believe the rating, the sharpest drop was felt by Moscow and St. Petersburg (which is probably not bad from the point of view of residents). According to CNN Travel, the Russian capital fell to 142nd place (a decline of 105 places), and the cultural capital of Russia took 147th place (a fall of 74 positions).
The study says that the slow recovery post-pandemic and «lowered consumer demand» were among the factors that saw Chinese cities (such as Beijing, which ranked 34th last year) drop several places down the list.
Damascus (Syria) remains the cheapest city in the world. Tehran (Iran) and Tripoli (Libya) are also at the bottom of the rankings, ranking 172nd and 171st respectively.
Costs for utilities, household help and tobacco products were the highest in the US cities. At the same time, Western European cities were among the most expensive when it came to holidays, transport and household goods.
Food and alcohol were the most expensive in Asian cities, according to the survey. Venezuelan Caracas, where prices have jumped by 450% since 2022, was excluded from the list.