Singapore now world's most expensive city

[specuvestor]

I find it interesting that folks need EIU to tell them what the cost of living is. Surely, you have better data points / first hand information than them?

As a comparison, what are the monthly pay for fresh graduates in the following countries?

Singapore ~ SGD3,000

Hong Kong ~ HKD12,778 (SGD2,100)

Malaysia ~ MYR2,800 (SGD1,100)

Taiwan ~ TWD28,000 (SGD1,200)

As well traveled Singaporeans, most folks would have been to the above countries. I will leave forumners to draw their own conclusions.

Similarly u are using other statistics to guesstimate your own conclusion, just that EIU is more elaborate

I am inherently skeptical about statistics but my own feel is HK and London and Dubai is more expensive than Singapore... but Singapore likely to be top10. Not sure if that's a comfort...

They are all cities. The correlation may not be positive for smaller settlements.

Even when correlation is clearly positive, it may not be linear. i.e. once the standard of living is above a certain level, it will take a lot more $$$ just to improve it slightly.

Certainly. But "absolutely" is mathematically not acceptable. haha.
And, there is really no clear standard on "Standard of living". I am ok with HDB but others may want a condo.

Even a 3-room HDB is fine too since I had lived in one for more than 20 years.
But, my standard is not everyone's standard

Cost of living is almost certain to go up when standard of living goes up; just as inflation goes up with growth. What is not fine is when cost of living/ inflation goes up without the latter. And many oil producing countries subsidise the cost of living.

PS Thanks to flinger for the EIU report