Bride of the Red Sea among the least expensive cities in world: SurveyJEDDAH – A global survey has named Jeddah among the 10 least expensive cities in the world. As per the worldwide “cost of living” survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the Bride of the Red City is the sixth least expensive city globally. Karachi in Pakistan has been named as the cheapest destination globally, while Zurich in Switzerland is the most expensive place in the world. Published twice a year, the survey tracks the prices of goods and services such as food, transportation, utilities, private schools and domestic help to calculate scores for each city, using New York as its base with a score of 100. In the EIU survey, the four cheapest locations globally - Karachi, Mumbai, Tehran and New Delhi - retained their positions from the previous year's list. However, Zurich has toppled Tokyo as the world's most expensive city, although both of them have become relatively more expensive in the past year. “Both Japan and Switzerland have seen strong currency movements over the last few years which have made them relatively more expensive,” EIU said. After Karachi, Mumbai, Tehran and New Delhi, the report has named Muscat, Dhaka, Algiers, Kathmandu, Panama City and Jeddah as the 10 least expensive cities. In the list of the ten most expensive cities, Zurich and Tokyo are followed by Geneva, Osaka Kobe, Oslo, Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and Frankfurt. The survey compared over 400 individual prices across 160 products and services. They include food, drink, clothing, household supplies and personal care items, home rents, transport, utility bills, private schools, domestic help and recreational costs. The main reason behind the low cost of living in the Middle Eastern cities was the use of price controls and the pegging of currencies to the US dollar, the report said. The Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living survey is a full service that enables human resources line managers and expatriate executives to compare the cost of living in 140 cities in 93 countries and calculate fair compensation policies for relocating employees.
