High dollar pushes relative cost of living in Australian cities up world rankings

Australia has four of world's costliest cities

Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane

THE rise in the Australian dollar means we now have four of the 15 most expensive cities in the world to live in, according to a survey released today by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit.

Sydney has moved up from 32nd place two years ago to sixth now and Melbourne is up from 38th to seventh, with a cost of living more than 40 per cent higher than New York, The Australian reports.

Perth and Brisbane, which are almost 25 per cent more expensive than New York, are ranked 13th and 14th.

All four cities are now costlier than major cities including London, Vienna, Rome, Berlin, Hong Kong and Beijing, according to the survey, which compares the cost of living using more than 400 individual prices in 133 cities around the world.

Tokyo, Oslo and Osaka take the top three places overall while Mumbai, Tunis and Karachi are the three cheapest.

The Australian cities' rankings have climbed sharply in the unit's surveys in recent years.

Read more about Australia being home to four of the world's most expensive cities to live in at The Australian.

aap 7 Jul 2011

The reality of this story is quite the contrast to what the government mentions about not only Australia but also the official inflation rates.

The majority of household bills have gone up in the tens of percent, and some as high as 50% annually.

The press (and for example the utility companies) mention that bills will soar.

The evidence is in the average household budget that there is a staggering increase in the cost of living.

At this point in time the mass media has mentioned that Melbourne is 40% more expensive to live in than New York.

The government insists that the inflation rate (CPI - Consumer Price Index) is 3.33% (March 2011).

This is another blatant government lie, which is deliberately ignored by the government sponsored mass media.