According to a new survey, Tel Aviv has become
the world’s most expensive city thanks to soaring inflation rates. Living costs
have increased globally, especially for those residing in cities. The Israeli city
present on the Mediterranean coast has climbed five rungs to secure the first
place in the authoritative ranking compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit
(EIU).

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The Worldwide Cost of Living Index is determined
by comparing all prices for goods and services in dollars. 173 cities were studied
in the survey.

A big reason behind Tel Aviv’s climb in the
rankings is the value of its national currency, the shekel, dwindling against
the dollar. This has led to an increase in prices for groceries as well as transport.

Paris and Singapore shared the second spot
while Zurich and Hong Kong occupied the next two. New York came in sixth
followed by Geneva at seventh.

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The top 10 was rounded off by Copenhagen in
eighth spot, Los Angeles in the ninth and Japan’s Osaka in 10th.

Paris, Zurich and Hong Kong were ranked jointly
in the first spot on last year’s list.

This year, the data was accumulated in
August and September, a time when prices for freight and commodities increased
exponentially. On average, all prices rose by 3.5% in terms of local currency –
which is the fastest inflation rate that has been recorded in the
last five years.

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Upasana Dutt, the head of worldwide cost of
living at the Economist Intelligence Unit said that social restrictions put in
place in order to combat the coronavirus “have disrupted the supply of goods, leading to shortages and
higher prices,” 

As per NDTv, she added, “We can clearly see the impact in
this year’s index, with the rise in petrol prices particularly stark,” 

Central Banks
globally are expected to raise the interest rates cautiously in order to reduce
the present inflation levels.

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Four cities were severely impacted due to the
coronavirus which saw an exponential rise in their inflation figures. These
cities were not counted when calculation the average inflation figure. These
cities are Caracas, Damascus, Buenos Aires and Tehran.

The Iranian capital Tehran jumped from the 79th
place to the 29th place following sanctions placed by the United
States.