Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Seoul has most expensive groceries in Asia
It costs a lot to buy groceries in Seoul. / Gettyimagesbank
By Jung Min-ho
By Jung Min-ho
Seoul is Asia's most expensive city for groceries, data showed Tuesday.
According to
, a site that collects global cost-of-living data, the Korean capital's price index is 105.73 ― Asia's highest and the sixth highest among 375 cities around the world.
The five more expensive cities than Seoul are all in Switzerland: Zurich (130.18) tops the list, followed by Basel (128.26), Lausanne (127.70), Geneva (119.81) and Bern (113.57).
The price index is based on the retail prices of items such as meat, vegetables and fruit.
Major Asian cities such as Tokyo (87.72), Hong Kong (79.74) and Shanghai (52.82) lag behind Seoul by a big margin.
Pakistan's Rawalpindi has the cheapest groceries (14.37), followed by the nation's two other cities ― Lahore (18.01) and Karachi (18.09).
In terms of living costs as a whole, Seoul is ranked 22nd with an index score of 87.26, which is higher than Paris (85.76) and Singapore (81.27)
1. Zurich, Switzerland
2. Basel, Switzerland
3. Lausanne, Switzerland
4. Geneva, Switzerland
5. Bern, Switzerland
6. Seoul, Korea
7. New York, United States
8. Washington DC, United States
9. Trondheim, Norway
10. Honolulu, United States