Jeddah Among World’s Top 10 Cheapest Cities

The Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah is among the top 10 cheapest cities in the world, according to the 2013 Worldwide Cost of Living survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Jeddah is ranked as the ninth least expensive city in the world among the 131 cities surveyed by EIU.

The survey compares prices of over 160 varied items and services, such as food, toiletries, clothing, domestic help, transport and utility bills.

Tokyo has been listed as the most expensive city in the world, pushing out Zurich from the top of the ranking.

“This is a familiar position for the Japanese capital which has been the world’s most expensive city for all but a handful of the last 20 years,” said the report.

“In fact, since 1992 Tokyo has been the ranking city in every year bar six. Only Zurich, Paris and Oslo were dubbed the world’s most expensive city during this time.”

Osaka, Sydney, Oslo, Melbourne, Singapore, Zurich, Paris, Caracas, and Geneva round off the top 10 most expensive cities in the world.

While Mumbai and Karachi are the joint cheapest locations in the survey, New Delhi, Katmandu, Algiers, Bucharest, Colombo, Panama City, Jeddah and Tehran round up the rest of the world’s 10 cheapest cities.

Among them, Jeddah, Bucharest and Panama City could offer a “cheap cost of living in a more stable environment,” the report said.

“The cheapest cities in the ranking have a familiar feel to them, both in terms of geography and consistency. While Asia is home to over half of the world’s 20 most expensive cities, the region is also home to six of the 10 cheapest cities,” it added.