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Cambodia: Kingdom ranked fourth-costliest Southeast Asian country
It may come as a surprise to many, but a global statistics website based in Serbia has ranked Cambodia as one of the most expensive countries to live in Southeast Asia.
Of the nine Southeast Asian countries included in the recently-released Numbeo Cost of Living Index (CLI) 2019 Mid-Year, Singapore ranked as the country with the highest cost of living in the region, followed by Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Numbeo, which released the rankings, describes itself as maintaining the “world’s largest database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide”.
Cambodia’s latest ranking was an improvement from the 2018 Numbeo CLI, where it ranked 3rd in the region after Singapore and Thailand. But the 2018 rankings only involved 115 countries and did not yet include Myanmar.
Cambodia’s latest ranking puts it ahead of bigger and more developed economies in the region like Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
A total of 136 countries around the globe were ranked based on the cost of groceries, clothing and other accessories, utilities, rent, transportation, leisure activities, restaurants, etc. Costs for similar items and services in New York City (counted as 100 percent) were used as a benchmark for computing the indices. For example, an index of 90 means that the cost of living is 10 percent cheaper than in the American city.
To come up with the rankings, Numbeo said it relied on input from local residents and official sources.
With New York being considered as having the highest cost of living, Singapore placed 12th in the total global ranking, followed by Thailand at 57th, Myanmar 64th and Cambodia 65th. Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia were ranked 73rd, 87th, 95th, 97th and 98th respectively.
While it is not surprising that Singapore was ranked as the ‘most expensive country’ to live in Southeast Asia, Cambodia’s ranking could be a bit unsettling for some.
Cambodia has long been known for having one of the lowest costs of living in Asia. Such a reputation led many foreigners, especially retirees, to flock to the Kingdom.
According to Government figures, Cambodia currently hosts an expat population of more than 150,000, with most of them concentrated in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville and other major urban centers.
But Marcus Mohlin, a Swedish expat residing in Phnom Penh, yesterday said the latest cost of living rankings did not come as a surprise.
“It is Phnom Penh that is a bit expensive, but I think those numbers refer to us [expats] only. The interesting thing about living here is that there are different strata, and ours happen to be more expensive,” he said when reached via Facebook Messenger.
He said that it is possible to live cheaply in Cambodia, but expats often choose to buy things at the more expensive places and go to the more expensive restaurants.
“Guess it is also about quality. The quality most expats want is slightly more expensive because it is almost always imported from abroad, and quite frequently from Europe or the United States,” Mr Mohlin stressed.
This year, Numbeo ranked Cayman Islands in the Caribbean as the most expensive place to live on earth due to its total dependence on imports.
Numbeo started the CLI rankings in 2009. After initially releasing its findings once a year, it resorted to twice-yearly releases since 2014.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50645781/kingdom-ranked-fourth-costliest-southeast-asian-country/