AUSTRALIA still tops the chart as the world’s most expensive country, even as a sliding Australian dollar reduces local prices in US dollar terms.
Deutsche Bank’s annual world consumer price index for 2014 shows that Australia is still more than 12 per cent more expensive than the US, although that is down from 63 per cent when the Aussie dollar was around parity in 2012.
Sydney and Melbourne have both cracked the list of top 10 most expensive major cities to live in at fifth and eight respectively, while Sydney had actually been in the cheapest 10 only 14 years earlier.
Only Singapore, Paris, Oslo and Zurich come in ahead of Australia’s most populous city in terms of cost of living.
New Zealand now comes in a close second to Australia, as its appreciating currency makes the country relatively more expensive compared to other nations.
The cheapest country of 19 listed is Russia, with a slumping rouble making it more attractive to foreign visitors at only 35 per cent of the price levels seen in the US.
The bank’s report looks at international measures of purchasing power parity (PPP), which compares how much it costs to buy a standard basket of goods in a variety of nations.
Australia dominates the list, at or near the top of a wide range of categories of goods and services in terms of cost.
Five-star hotel rooms in Sydney are 232 per cent of the cost of their counterparts in New York, although Melbourne is only 72 per cent of the price.
Two litres of Coca-Cola in Sydney costs one-and-a-half times the typical price in New York, while Melbourne is only 18 per cent more expensive.
On the other hand, beer is slightly cheaper in Sydney and Melbourne than the Big Apple, and about the same as San Francisco, London and Zurich, although almost twice the price as in Germany.
