Time: Life In Belarus Is More Expensive Than In Poland, Spain Or Germany

An American magazine Time has published a rating of 112 countries according costs of living there.

Belarus took the 50th position, that is, according to experts of the magazine, costs of living in 49 countries is lower than in Belarus.

Time has compared four key affordability metrics in each country to New York City. South Africa has turned out to be the cheapest country, followed by India, Kosovo, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Zambia, Oman, Paraguay, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland.

To compare costs of living, the following indexes were taken: the local purchasing power index (measures the relative purchasing power of a typical salary in that country, compared to New York City), the rent index (compares typical rental prices in the country to New York City); the groceries index (compares typical grocery prices) and the consumer price index (compares costs of local goods and services — including restaurants, groceries, transportation and utilities).

As it turned out, the relative purchasing power of a typical salary in Belarus is by 59.9% lower than in New York City, the rent is lower by 85.1%; grocery prices are 67% lower, and consumer prices are 59.5% lower.

According to these calculations, Ukraine, Estonia, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Portugal, Latvia, Croatia and Lithuania are cheaper countries to live in than Belarus.

Earlier charter97.org website informed that process for clothes in Belarus are 50 per cent higher then – or twice as high as in Poland.