The cost of living has risen in the world’s largest cities, by 8.1% in one year, according to the latest ranking of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the analysis unit of the British weekly The Economist. This is the fastest growth recorded since it began comparing prices 20 years ago.

The situation is reshuffling the deck, especially for Luxembourg. The capital has fallen 38 places to 104th. This makes it the most notable drop, on par with Stockholm (Sweden), 99th.

“While inflation in Europe has risen, the energy crisis that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine is pushing the continent into recession and depreciating currencies against the US dollar, reducing the indexes of some European cities,” explained the EIU.

New York in the lead, Paris in the top 10

The study was conducted between 16 August and 16 September 2022, i.e., after the euro had fallen below parity with the dollar. Prices of more than 200 goods and services were collected in 172 major cities and then converted into US dollars for equal comparison. These range from food or clothing, to the cost of rent, transport, school or leisure.

New York (USA) tops the overall rankings for the first time this year, tied with Singapore. They are followed by Tel Aviv (Israel), which was first last year. Tehran (Iran), Tripoli (Libya) and Damascus (Syria) are the least expensive cities.

Moscow and St. Petersburg (Russia) show the strongest gains in the ranking, rising 88 and 70 places respectively.

Although the city most affected by inflation is Caracas (Venezuela), where prices rose by 132% in local currency, it was excluded from the average so as not to distort the calculations. Istanbul (Turkey, +86%), Buenos Aires (Argentina, +64%) and Tehran (+57%) also experienced significant cost increases.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.