Colombo among world's low cost of living cities - survey

Colombo has ranked high among the low cost of living cities in the world, according to the latest Worldwide Cost of Living Survey of The Economist.

Tokyo is still the most expensive city in the world, according to the survey. The Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey is a full service that enables human resources line managers and expatriate executives to compare the cost of living in 140 cities in 93 countries and calculate fair compensation policies for relocating employees, The Economist stated.

Colombo ranks in 114th, in the bottom 20. Mumbai and New Delhi were also in the bottom 10.

Most of 10 cheapest cities were in South Asia with the Pakistani port of Karachi at the bottom of the index.

"Despite the rise of India as a growing emerging-market economy, the low cost of living in cities continues to reflect the fact that the subcontinent remains a comparatively cheap place to live and work," the Survey said.Oslo, Osaka, Kobe, Paris and Zurich are now the second, third, fourth and fifth respectively. Sydney and Melbourne are now the sixth and seventh most expensive cities on the planet, the Economist Survey revealed.

More significantly Perth and Brisbane, major regional centres closest to the country's booming coal and iron ore mines, rose to 13 and 14 respectively. "Ten years ago Sydney was ranked 71st and Melbourne 80th, while Perth was ranked 91st and Brisbane was 93rd," the Survey said. "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."

It is now cheaper to live in London, Vienna, Rome, Berlin, Hong Kong and Beijing than most Australian cities, it said. "This year the cost of living has increased further in Tokyo, despite the human and economic cost of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Tokyo in March and the subsequent nuclear reactor scare in Fukushima," the Survey further said.