Cost of living surges in Australian cities
Australian cities continued to rise on a list of the world’s highest cost of living cities, with Sydney and Melbourne now well entrenched in the top 10 and Perth and Brisbane rapidly catching up.
“This is the culmination of a remarkable rise in the cost of living in Australian cities over the last decade, a period in which the value of the Australian dollar has moved from around 50 US cents to passing parity with the US dollar earlier this year,” said the Worldwide Cost of Living report.
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The report, released on a biannual basis, is published by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
In the most recent report Sydney and Melbourne each jumped two spots in the previous 12 months, finishing sixth and seventh respectively in this year’s index. Perth was the world’s 13th most expensive place to live, while Brisbane was 14th.
The report noted the staggering surge in Australia’s cost of living over the past decade. “Just two years ago, Sydney was ranked the 32nd most expensive city in the world and Melbourne the 38th,” it said.“Ten years ago Sydney was ranked 71st and Melbourne 80th, while Perth was ranked 91st and Brisbane was 93rd.
The Worldwide Cost of Living index is a survey that compares over 400 individual prices across 160 products and services in 140 cities in 93 countries.
