The recent Parliamentary debates on Budget 2017 have revealed or hinted at price hikes for water and public transport fares, and the introduction of a carbon tax in 2019.

In addition to these, parking fees, electricity tariffs, gas prices, and service and conservancy charges have or are set to be increased.

An economist has also predicted that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is likely to be raised.

All these point to a higher and rising cost of living here.

Singapore is an expensive city to live in - that is no secret - but how does it compare to other countries?

Well, MoveHub, a website that shares information to help people make decisions on where to move to around the world, recently published a nifty infographic showing the cost of living of countries and cities around the world, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI). More about CPI here.

According to MoveHub:

The CPI in the infographic is a relative indicator of a country's living costs compared to New York. So, for instance, if a country has a CPI of 70, on average it enjoys 30% cheaper living costs compared to New York.

Here is the overview of the cost of living of the world, where the redder the area, the higher the cost of living, while the yellow to green areas show a low cost of living.

Little red dot

Now that you have an idea of what the map is like, let's zoom in on Southeast Asia, where Singapore is, in case you're living under a rock.

So, being the little red dot that the country is, we are the most expensive place in Southeast Asia, according to MoveHub.

How do we rank globally?

Globally, we are the fifth most expensive city in the world, behind Bermuda (first), Switzerland (second), Hong Kong (third), and Iceland (fourth).

Perhaps it might not be long before we move up in this ranking, considering our recent price hikes.

But before we get carried away by our cost of living in this ranking, let's remember also that this infographic and ranking was created for expats considering a move to Singapore. They will not qualify for various subsidies and reliefs that the government gives out to support Singaporeans.

The full infographic by MoveHub can be viewed here.

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Top image screen grab from MoveHub's infographic.

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