ASTANA – Kazakhstan took 119th place in the annual ranking of the cost of living in different countries of the world prepared by Numbeo international information portal. The nation moved 57 positions from last year, as it was ranked 62nd in 2015.
Photo credit: imoney.my
The study involved 122 countries. The top 10 nations with the most affordable accommodations are India (122th place), Moldova (121th), Pakistan (120th), Kazakhstan (119th), Nepal (118th), Ukraine (117th), Georgia (116th), Algeria (115th), Azerbaijan (114th) and Colombia (113th), according to numbeo.com. Kazakhstan ranks ahead of other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, such as Uzbekistan, Belarus, Armenia and Russia.
The rankings considered a number of parameters, including rental prices, cost of products and services and prices for public transport.
According to the website, the average monthly rent for a studio apartment in a Kazakh city is 92,000 tenge (US$277). Experts used information from Krisha.kz, a popular online service for buying and renting real estate.
The monthly price of a fitness club membership is 14,000 tenge (US$42); a movie ticket, 1,200 tenge (US$3.60). A1.5-litre bottle of water costs 141 tenge (US$.40), a one-litre bottle of milk is 244 tenge (US$.73) and one kilogramme of potatoes is 115 tenge (US$.35). Bus fare is 80 tenge (US$.24).
According to the rating, the top 10 most expensive countries to live in are Bermuda, Switzerland, the Bahamas, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Singapore, Luxembourg, Kuwait and Hong Kong.
Created in April 2009, Numbeo was the first free database about cost of living with structured data and indices. Its experts announced other cost of living reports hid the data behind their research or it was expensive to purchase. The experts rely on user inputs and manually-collected data from authoritative sources such as supermarket and taxi company websites, state bodies, newspaper stories and other surveys.
Using the methodology, prices for clothes such as jeans, summer dresses, running shoes and leather business shoes are compared among different countries. The experts consider the average person drinks milk and eats white bread, rice, eggs, cheese, chicken breasts and beef. Apples, bananas, oranges, onions and lettuce are also included in the food ration and beer, wine and cigarettes are part of the product list. A Volkswagen Golf, with a small 1.4-litre engine or its equivalent, is considered to be an average new car.
