A recent study conducted annually by Swiss bank USB on 77 metropolitan areas shows that Egypt’s capital Cairo is the cheapest city in the world, while the Swiss city of Zurich is the most expensive.
The study also suggests that when it came to buying power for the average worker, the US city of Los Angeles is the world’s best as its population can buy more than New Yorkers can.
The UBS’s study looks into a subset of data on where young people could buy a range of goods and services, including an Apple phone and a laptop.
The study shows that a couple seeking a dinner with a bottle of wine and a cinema would pay more in Tokyo, New York and Stockholm than in Prague, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro.
Being the capital of the country with a population of 19.5 million, Cairo is considered the most congested city in Egypt.
The Qalyubia, Giza and Cairo governorates together represent what is known as Greater Cairo.
According to a Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics report issued in 2015, about 27.8% of the Egyptian population is currently living below the poverty line. Several international bodies have disputed that number, instead claiming that the number of people below the poverty line in Egypt is 40%.
In November 2016, Egypt began following the IMF reform program that is based on providing Egypt with $12 billion loan in exchange for wide-ranging economic reforms including lifting fuel subsidies and some other public services.
In 2018, the slash of the state’s subsidies has extended to the Cairo metro tickets that witnessed price hikes.
