ON a short vacation with my family, I just experienced the most expensive city in the world, Singapore. For eight out of 10 years, Singapore was named the world's most expensive city, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Worldwide Cost of Living. As a tourist destination, Singapore is visited not just for the sights, mostly man-made, but for the food. More than 90 percent of all food in Singapore is imported since land is so precious to be used for agriculture. In general, dining out tends to cost a little more (because of rental and labor cost in producing food). So, for the budget conscious, hawker centers and food courts are the preferred locations.

Meanwhile, Manila ranked 124th out of the 172 major cities covered, even lower than its 112th ranking the previous year. Worldwide, the cost of living in the biggest cities has soared as the war in Ukraine and the effects of the pandemic disrupted supply chains, particularly for energy and food. The EIU, however, predicted softening of prices as supply bottlenecks ease and slowing economies weigh on consumer demand.