Even before the imposition of a 30% water price increase, Singapore is now ranked the world’s most expensive city in the world in the Worldwide Cost of Living for 2017. This is the 4th consecutive year Singapore is in the most expensive list.
The independent survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) compared cost of living in 133 countries and found that many consumer prices across 160 products and services are greatly inflated in Singapore. In terms of pricing relativity, Singapore has an index of 120, or 20% more expensive than the baseline cost in the city of New York.
You can download the report here.
The EIU survey collaborates with another independent survey conducted by Mercer, which ranked Singapore as the 4th most expensive in the world in 2016. Outraged with international reports “giving inaccurate cost of living reports” over the years, the Singapore government conducted its own cost of living survey in November 2015 and ranks itself 48th instead.
Read: Singapore surveys itself 48th most expensive when it is actually 1st in the world
The Singapore government however dismissed reports and complains by the people that living cost is too high. The ruling party Ministers, who coincidentally draws the most expensive salaries in the world, recently said that water prices is too cheap and that public transport fares is “unrealistically low”.
Water prices have increased 30% and diesel taxes have increased, causing price inflation in all costs for Singaporeans. The Transport Ministry will also be increasing public transport fares, with Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan earlier telling Singaporeans to not always expect good news.
In address to the high cost of living, the Singapore government relies only on propaganda to “neutralise negativity”, which they blame “fake news for fanning negative sentiments” among Singaporeans.
Read: REACH survey: Government helps a lot with cost of living, Singaporeans are choosy at jobs