Indian cities led by Bengaluru among cheapest to live in: EIU survey

New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru are among the 10 cheapest cities in the world to live in, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living 2017 report released on Monday.

India
Shoppers walk past stores at a mall in Mumbai, India, July 10, 2017. . Reuters

New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru are among the 10 cheapest cities in the world to live in, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Worldwide Cost of Living 2017 report released on Monday.

Bengaluru comes in at 131 in a ranking of 133 countries, with a cost of living index of 42 (New York is taken as 100).

Chennai and Mumbai are both at 127, with an index of 45, and New Delhi at 124, with a ranking of 47. Almaty, in the central Asian country of Kazakhstan, is the cheapest city in the world.

It has an index of 38. The index, which EIU has been publishing for three decades, takes into account rent, transport and utility costs, school fees, and entertainment expenses.

Singapore remains the most expensive city in the world, and Hong Kong, the second most, with index scores of 120 and 114, respectively.

New York, which rose to seventh place last year, has fallen to ninth owing to a slight weakening of the U.S. dollar.

Paris is the only euro zone city among the ten most expensive. The French capital remains structurally extremely expensive to live in, with only alcohol and tobacco offering value for money compared with other European cities, the survey said.

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