Cost of living - News should be welcomed

Dublin has plunged nine places to 25th place in the table of cities with the highest cost of living, according to a survey of 143 cities around the world. This news should be warmly welcomed.

Maybe it would be inapt to say it is cheaper, but it is certainly less expensive that other European capital cities, such as Moscow, Copenhagen, Oslo, Paris, London, Rome and Helsinki, as well as other European cities such as Geneva, Zurich and Milan.

Consultants Mercer Human Resources compared the cost of more than 200 items ranging from the price of renting a flat to the cost of a newspaper.

Dublin still ranks as the most expensive city in the world for fast food. A hamburger meal in a medium priced establishment in Dublin cost €6.65 in comparison to €4.28 in New York. But New York has nevertheless become much more expensive than Dublin.

In the 2008 rankings New York was six places behind Dublin, but in the latest survey New York has climbed to eight, 17 places ahead of the Irish capital. This will inevitably have an impact on the shopping junkets to New York, which had become so popular in recent years. It should also be remembered that in the recent survey published, the Central Statistics Office found Dublin was 4.4% more expensive than the rest of the country. So we are going in the right direction.