Seoul has most expensive groceries in Asia

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Sat, September 30, 2023 | 18:35

Society

Seoul has most expensive groceries in Asia

Posted : 2019-09-17 14:30

Updated : 2019-09-18 13:43

It costs a lot to buy groceries in Seoul. / Gettyimagesbank

By Jung Min-ho

Seoul is Asia's most expensive city for groceries, data showed Tuesday.

According to Numbeo, 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