Carmel market in Tel Aviv.
In terms of fruit and vegetable prices, we are (yet) not the most expensive in the world (Photo: ShutterStock)
We are not participating in the World Cup, but until yesterday we could announce that Israel - or more precisely - Tel Aviv, is the world champion.
Maybe not to "declare with pride", since this is the cost of living index for cities in the world by the British magazine "Economist", but Tel Aviv managed to lose even this dubious title - and until an award is given to the most excavated city in the world, it will have to settle for the respectable third place, after New York and Singapore.
Every year, on the first day of December, the British magazine publishes its ranking: in 2020, Tel Aviv made the top five, but on 1.12.21 it took first place in the table, not necessarily because of a crazy price increase (which it did), but Mainly because of a very strong exchange rate of the shekel against the dollar and the euro.
Catch America: New York overtook Tel Aviv on the way to the championship (Photo: ShutterStock)
The British magazine examines nearly 200 cities around the world according to the pricing of more than 200 different products and services.
Among them, among others: a McRoyal meal at the McDonald's chain, a kilo of apples, monthly rent for a two-room apartment, the price of a pair of Levi's model 501 pants, the cost of an average family car - and all of these are compared to the purchasing power of the average salary in the city for a salaried job.
In other words: it is not the absolute cost of the various products and services included in the index that determines the position on the list, but a comparative test of them against the average salary.
Among the parameters that earned Tel Aviv first place last year, the new vehicle section stood out - the cost of which in Israel (and not only in Tel Aviv, of course) is one of the highest in the world, because of this - and due to the high exchange rate of the shekel against world currencies, it overtook cities that are considered more expensive than it - Like New York and Singapore (which overtook it in this year's ranking).
On the other hand, the prices of vegetables and fruits, which are also surveyed in the index, were almost always low compared to the "competitors".
It is doubtful whether the residents of Tel Aviv who walk through the ruins of what was once their beautiful city, pay huge sums at the supermarket, struggle with parking tickets and exorbitant rent, will take solace in the fact that they are no longer residents of the most expensive city in the world, but only the one ranked third.
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Singapore: Real estate is more expensive than in Tel Aviv, the new car is cheaper. Another city that bypassed Tel Aviv in a round (Photo: ShutterStock)
And who is in the last places?
In any case, it is worth mentioning that the cost of living index is only one parameter to examine the quality of life in a place, since when you look at the bottom of the list, you find cities there that the residents of Tel Aviv would doubtless exchange with: Damascus, Tripoli, Tashkent, Tehran and Tunis.
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