Kathmandu third cheapest city in the world

Kathmandu is the third cheapest city in the world, according to an annual survey released today.
Mumbai in India and Karachi in Pakistan were the joint cheapest locations in the survey followed by New Delhi, Kathmandu and Algerian capital of Algiers, revealed the Economist Intelligence Unit’s worldwide cost of living index.

Rounding out the bottom 10 were Bucharest in Romania, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Panama City, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and Iranian capital Tehran, added the survey that is based on costs of over 160 items ranging from food and clothing, to domestic help, transport and utilities.
Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, Oslo and Melbourne are the top five most expensive cities, whereas Canadian city of Vancouver remains the most expensive location in North America, ranked 21st in the index. But while Asia and Australasia are home to 11 of the 20 most expensive cities, the region is also home to six of the 10 cheapest. 

Asia and Australasia account for 11 of the world’s top 20 most expensive cities, with eight from Europe and one from South America, no North American cities featured in the top 20, it added.
This compared to a decade ago when there were six Asian cities, 10 European cities and four US cities in the top 20 of the list that calculates living costs in 131 cities in 93 countries and is used by companies for costings when relocating staff, according to the survey.
In the 2013 survey, Tokyo reclaimed the title as the world’s most expensive city.
Jon Copestake, editor of the EIU Worldwide Cost of Living Index, said the return of Tokyo to top of the list came as no great surprise as the Japanese capital had steep real estate costs and rents, as well as high wages fuelling prices.
Since 1992 Tokyo has been the top-ranking city in every year bar six when Zurich, Paris and Oslo claimed the No 1 spot. Currency swings pushed Zurich into the No 1 position last year but government exchange rate controls have driven the Swiss city back to No 7 in the list.
Copestake said one of the most notable changes was the rising costs in Australia, with Sydney third in the list and Melbourne fifth.
“Ten years ago there were no Australian cities in the top 50 most expensive cities and I have not seen this sort of climb with any other cities,” he said, adding that economic growth has, however, supported inflation and the strength of the Australian dollar against other currencies besides the US dollar has driven up costs. "Visitors will certainly feel the difference and people living there will have noticed prices have crept up.”
Also featured in the 2013 top 10 were Singapore, Zurich, Paris, the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and Geneva.
Although no North American cities feature in the top 20, the EIU said the cost of living in New York had risen relative to other places in the US. It shares 27th position as the most expensive US city with Los Angeles.

Nepal needs to improve food security situation, Global Food Security Index 2012 ranks the country 79 out of 105

Based on affordability, availability, and quality and safety — the three global parameters — Nepal ranked 79 out of 105 countries, scoring 35.2, in the Global Food Security Index 2012.
According to the Global Food Security Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the country has 17 per cent undernourishment that is strongly associated with a low food security ranking.
"Among the four categories — best performance, good performance, moderate and needs improvement — the country falls under the fourth category that needs improvement," the report said. It mentioned that the country faces food consumption as a share of household expenditure, public expenditure on agricultural research and development, and gross domestic product per capita, diet diversification and protein quality as challenges, whereas nutritional standards, volatility of agricultural production, agricultural import tariffs and food safety are some of the strengths.
Under affordability, the index looks into food consumption as a share of household expenditure, proportion of population under global poverty line, gross domestic product per capita, agricultural import tariffs, presence of food safety net programmes and access to farmer financing.
Under availability, the index looks into sufficiency of supply, public expenditure on agricultural research and development, agricultural infrastructure, volatility of agricultural production and political instability.
Similarly, the index under the third parameter quality and safety, looks into diet diversification, nutritional standards, micronutrient availability, and protein quality and food safety.
Among the three key issues, the country ranks 91 for affordability, 71 for availability and 74 for quality and safety, according to the report that has ranked the US the highest in terms of food security, followed by Denmark, Norway and France, while Burundi, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo rank the lowest. Brazil, China, and India fell in the middle of the pack ranking at 31, 38, and 66, respectively.
Nepal’s ranking is the lowest in the South Asian region in terms of affordability given that food prices have been higher than non-food prices.
However, landlocked countries fared nearly as well as those with a coastline. "The 22 landlocked countries in the index on average scored only seven points lower than those that are not landlocked. This suggests that although small countries without seaports may be particularly vulnerable to food shocks, being landlocked in itself does not translate into a significantly greater degree of food insecurity," the report stated.
The Economist Intelligence Unit calculates the Global Food Security Index by considering affordability (40 per cent), availability (44 per cent), and quality and safety (16 per cent).
The 1996 World Food Summit defines food security as the state in which people at all times have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs for a healthy and active life.

South Asian ranking
Bangladesh — 81
Nepal — 79
Pakistan — 75
India — 66
Sri Lanka — 62
(Source: Global Food Security Index 2012)

Asia hosts the world's cheapest and most expensive cities

Seoul (Korea Newswire): The latest Economist Intelligence Unit cost of living survey highlights the way in which sharp shifts in exchange rates in recent months have altered the relative cost of living in cities around the world.
By comparing the ranking of cities in September 2008 (when the price survey was conducted) to the ranking in February 2009 (adjusting the September price data for recent exchange-rate movements), it is possible to see which locations have been relative winners or losers as a result of the currency dislocation.

Asia: Home to the cheapest and most expensive
The impact on the ranking of Asian cities of rebasing the survey to February 2009 exchange rates is very mixed, as the region plays host to countries with the most and the least expensive cost of living in the survey. Cities in Australia and New Zealand have seen dramatic falls of between 21 and 25 index points. Conversely a stronger yen now means that the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka have become the most expensive cities in our survey. The Chinese renminbi is tightly linked to the US dollar, which means that the relative cost of living in Chinese cities has risen as the currencies of other countries fall. Shanghai, with a cost of living that is only two per cent cheaper than New York, is now more expensive than Sydney (Australia), which is eight per cent cheaper. Asia is home to many of the least expensive cities in the world, supplying five of the ten cheapest locations in the survey, four of which hail from the Indian subcontinent. Manila (Philippines), in 126th position, joins Kathmandu, New Delhi, Mumbai and Karachi.
The cost of living in Manila is half that of New York, whereas that in Karachi, the cheapest city in the survey, is just over one-third of that of New York.

Global round-up
Oslo (Norway), previously the most expensive city, has fallen to fifth place, below Paris (France) and Copenhagen (Denmark). London (UK), originally ranked eighth, has slid dramatically in line with a weak sterling to joint 27th position, below New York (US) for the first time since 2002. Reykjavik (Iceland), one of the early casualties of the current global malaise, was the fifth most expensive city last year. It fell to 39th using exchange rates from September 2008, but by February this year had fallen to 67th in the ranking.
Jon Copestake, editor of the report, comments, "Two factors drive the relative cost of living: local prices and exchange rates. Normally our ranking of cities by cost of living is relatively stable, but in the current global climate changes in exchange rates have significantly altered our assessment of the most and least expensive cities."
The main changes in the ranking, achieved by applying February 2009 exchange rates to the original price data collated in September 2008, occur among the most expensive cities. The decline of European currencies, most notably the euro, sterling and the Norwegian krone, has driven a significant weakening in the relative cost of living for many European cities. West European cities still dominate the top ten worldwide, with just three cities (Tokyo, Osaka and Singapore) from outside Europe. Nevertheless, the cost of living gap has closed. The strong US dollar has meant that cities in the United States, along with any country that pegs its currency to the dollar, have jumped in the ranking.
New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have risen from joint 39th to joint 23rd position, and Hong Kong has risen by 17 places to 11th in the ranking. Much less affected are the lower-cost locations in the world.

The cheapest ones: Kathmandu ranks 128th
The cheapest cities in the survey remain predominantly Asian, with four of the bottom five hailing from the Indian subcontinent: Kathmandu (Nepal), 128th; New Delhi and Mumbai (India), 129th and 130th respectively; and Karachi (Pakistan), 132nd.

This survey compares the original findings of the September 2008 cost of living survey to those at February 2009 exchange rates. For the purposes of this release it is assumed that local prices have not moved between September, when the survey took place, and February when the new exchange rates were applied. The customisation of exchange rates is a standard feature of the worldwide cost of living survey to account for fluctuations like those seen in recent months. Worldwide Cost of Living, the bi-annual Economist Intelligence Unit survey, compares prices and products in 140 cities around the world.
Its purpose is to provide companies with an unbiased and independent guide from which allowances can be calculated for executives and their families being sent overseas. The Economist Intelligence Unit can calculate indices based on any one of the cities. The data quoted here used New York as a base index of 100 for comparisons.

About the Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit is the business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist.
Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost Of Living 2009