Bengaluru world’s third cheapest city to live in: survey
22 Mar 2017
India's technology capital Bengaluru is rightly also considered a and pensioners' paradise – it is the world's third cheapest city to live in, according to a report compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an arm of The Economist Group.
The report says three other India cities figure in the list, with Chennai occupying the sixth place, Mumbai seventh and New Delhi the tenth position. The four Indian cities are among the 10 cheapest places on the planet.
Almaty in Kazakhstan has been ranked the cheapest in the world, followed by Lagos in Nigeria. Karachi was placed 4th, Algiers 5th, Kiev 8th and Bucharest 9th.
Singapore retained its title as the world's most expensive city for the fourth consecutive year, while Hong Kong remained second, closely followed by Zurich in 3rd place. Others in the 10 most expensive cities list include Tokyo in 4th position, Osaka 5th, Seoul 6th, Geneva 7th, Paris 8th, New York 9th and Copenhagen 10th.
The Worldwide Cost of Living is a biannual EIU 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.
The EIU's Worldwide Cost of Living 2017 report said Asia is home to some of the world's most expensive cities and also to many of the world's cheapest cities.
"Although the Indian subcontinent remains structurally cheap, instability is becoming an increasingly prominent factor in lowering the relative cost of living of a location," the EIU said, adding that "this means that there is a considerable element of risk in some of the world's cheapest cities.''
Within Asia, the best value for money has traditionally come from South Asian cities, particularly those in India and Pakistan, the report said. Half of the 10 cheapest locations surveyed are in this region, including Karachi which ranks 4th.
"India is tipped for rapid expansion as Chinese growth declines, but much of this is driven by its demographic profile, and in per capita terms, wage and spending growth will come from a low base," the report said.