EIU Webinar on Worldwide Cost of Living

Last 28 July 2011, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) of The Economist group held a Webinar on the Worldwide Cost of Living based on the EIU survey of the same title.  The webinar was facilitated by Coralie Thomson and the resource person was Senior Editor Jon Copestake.  Participants in the webinar are based on the online registration EIU announced a week ago. 

Copestake presented the result of the survey.  The webinar technology used allowed Copestake to visually appear in front of the participant via the Powerpoint Presentation.  While Tokyo (Japan) placed the most expensive city to live in until 2006, Karachi (Pakistan) placed the cheapest city. 

“The survey gathers detailed information on the cost of more than 160 items -- from food, toiletries and clothing to domestic help, transport and utility bills -- in every city.  More than 50,000 individual prices are collected in each survey round, which take place in March and September, and surveys are updated each June and December.  A cost-of-living index is calculated from the price data to express the difference in the cost of living between any two cities.” 

Personally, I was troubled to see that Manila is one among the 10 cheapest city to live in.  Locally, Filipinos face problem on poverty.  Indigent families are hard up to sustain their daily needs.  But as the world considers Manila as one of the cheapest city to live in, it may in effect show how poor Filipinos are.  Expatriate indeed wants to spend their hard-earned money to a country where their monies valued at a higher worth.  This is the reason why Philippines housed most of the retirees of other nations.  


For more information and to download the Survey, please click on EIU WCOL.