Singapore Cheaper Than Stockholm

[trulysingapore 0]

I refer to the Straits Times article “Singapore cheaper than Stockholm” dated 26 Sept 2009 which featured Mr Mikael Huss from Stockholm telling us how much cheaper Singapore is compared to Stockholm.

Mr Huss vouched that back in Stockholm, it is nearly impossible for a household to survive on a single income, so he found it ’surprising’ that his family could get by on a single income after moving to Singapore. He concludes that “Stockholm’s living cost is much higher”.

But according to the UBS comparison on prices and wages, which is the subject of the accompanying Straits Times report “How much is a burger worth?”, the price level in Stockholm excluding rent is only 87.0, not “much higher” than Singapore’s 82.0, contrary to what Mr Huss says.

Mr Huss added that “everything is cheaper here except maybe rent and childcare”. The question we want to ask Mr Huss is, what is the point of counting the price of everything except rent? Will that exclude Mr Huss from paying rent? Certainly not! So if we consider rent as well, UBS’s findings tell us that the price level in Stockholm is actually 65.5, lower than Singapore’s 70.7. Therefore, Singapore is in fact more expensive than Stockholm, contrary to what Mr Huss or the title the article would like you to believe.

Furthermore, what is the point of comparing price levels without also comparing wages? The UBS findings show that Stockholm’s wage level is 74.5, way above Singapore’s wage level of 26.8. In other words, while prices of goods are similar between the two countries, Stockholmers earn three times as much as us! So it is indeed unthinkable how Mr Huss should find it nearly impossible to survive in Stockholm yet finds it easy to do so here when the average wage in Stockholm is three times that in Singapore!

Mr Huss also claims that taxes in Stockholm were higher. But according to UBS findings, the net wage level (that is net of taxes) in Stockholm is 71.0 while the corresponding figure for Singapore is 31.3. In other words, despite Stockholm’s higher taxes, their take home pay is still much higher than those in Singapore, more than two times that of Singapore’s in fact.

All in all, it is hard to believe what Mr Huss says. And that is the problem with personal anecdotal evidences, they are not necessarily reflective of the general situation at large.

[Kalidor 0]

Well... let me give you a simple answer to your question.

Mr Huss obviously belongs to the elite group of expatriate foreign talent that makes 3, 4 or maybe even more times the wage of an average heartland Singaporean, who back in his own native sweden, could just be the average heartland swede wage earner.... No wonder he finds it cheaper to live here.....

No offence meant to Mr Huss...

See... there... easy right..... question answered..

[trulysingapore 0]

Well... let me give you a simple answer to your question.

Mr Huss obviously belongs to the elite group of expatriate foreign talent that makes 3, 4 or maybe even more times the wage of an average heartland Singaporean, who back in his own native sweden, could just be the average heartland swede wage earner.... No wonder he finds it cheaper to live here.....

No offence meant to Mr Huss...

See... there... easy right..... question answered..

that is possible. but mr huss is saying that in general, life is much better here, cost of living is lower here while salaries are higher. that's bull**** and our national newspaper is very fond of making use of foreigners to make a statement about life here which is so, so untrue.

we have to expose these lies.

[JustMortgage 0]

Using the Big Mac Index as a comparison would not be fair as the index measures the cost of a burger in a country as according to price/inflation/living standards which might not always be a fair indication of cost of living.

[trulysingapore 0]

Using the Big Mac Index as a comparison would not be fair as the index measures the cost of a burger in a country as according to price/inflation/living standards which might not always be a fair indication of cost of living.

the figures quoted are not taken from the big mac index. they are taken from the UBS wage and price comparison which does a pretty good job of comparing both wages and cost of a basket of goods. with this two, i think the comparison is pretty valid.

there is nothing else that comes close so far. definitely not tourists' opinions.