The cost of living in two of Australia’s cities is rocketing

The cost of living in Sydney and Melbourne is among the highest of the world’s cities, and Brisbane and Adelaide are rocketing up the cost-of-living ranking.

For the past 30 years, the Economist Intelligence Unit has maintained its Worldwide Cost of Living ranking, which looks at the price of more 160 products and services such as food, drink, rent, utilities and entertainment in 132 cities.

It then converts the prices into US dollars based on the exchange rate at the time.

Sydney was in 14th spot on the 2017 ranking, with Melbourne in 15th – down from their top 10 places five years ago – while Brisbane and Adelaide were the biggest biggest risers in this year’s ranking, jumping 18 places each to come in at 31st and 35st places respectively.

The moves were in part due to a weaker US dollar and corresponding strength in the Aussie currency, because a weaker greenback means goods priced in Australian dollars appear more expensive in a US dollar-based index.

It currently takes about $1.30 to buy US$1.

Looking at individual product prices, though, gives a rough indication of what residents in other pricey cities pay for basic goods.

For example, the average US dollar price of a litre of unleaded petrol is just US 61 cents in New York, US$1.73 in Hong Kong and $US1.63 in Denmark’s Copenhagen.

A 750 millilitre bottle of ‘table wine’ costs $26.54 in South Korean capital Seoul but just US$8.20 on average in Geneva, Switzerland.

And the average price of a 1 kilogram loaf of bread ranges from US$3.55 in Singapore and US$4.61 in Hong Kong to a whopping $14.82 in ever-expensive Seoul.

If you’re looking for cheaper places to live, Almaty in Kazakhstan is the least-expensive city in the index, followed by and Lagos in Nigeria. A load of bread costs just 90 US cents in Almaty, while a litre of unleaded will set you back 49 US cents and a bottle of wine US$5.15.

This is despite inflation inflation running at nearly 20- percent in the Kazakhstani capital in 2016 – something that failed to offset the impact of a 50 percent devaluation in the tenge, the local currency, which makes products in US dollars more expensive in an international index.

But the EIU points out that there’s a trade-off when it comes to living in cheaper cities.

“Instability is becoming an increasingly prominent factor in lowering the relative cost of living of a location,” the 2017 notes. “This means that there is a considerable element of risk in some of the world’s cheapest cities.”

Do you think the cost of living is rising too fast? Have you noticed the prices of any particular goods or services rising or falling more quickly than usual?