Numbeo.com, a global statistics website, recently released its global cost of living index (CoLI) in which it compares cities worldwide based on their scores in the index when benchmarked to New York City. It also provides the values of four other indices namely the Rent Index, the Groceries Price Index, the Restaurant Price Index, and the Local Purchasing Power Index for each city, always when benchmarked to the city of New York. According to Numbeo’s latest statistics, Swiss cities emerged as the most expensive cities in the world, occupying the top 3 positions, with Zurich ranking first with a Cost of Living index score of 103.8 followed by Lausanne (score of 100.9) and Geneva (score of 100.7). Zurich’s CoLI value of 103.8 implies that prices in Zurich are 3.8% more expensive than those in New York City (which ranked 4^th globally). Regionally, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the most expensive Arab city on the 2025 Numbeo list with a CoLI value of 58.0 (ranking 115^th globally), followed by Abu Dhabi, UAE (CoLI value of 52.6 and global rank of 139) and Doha, Qatar (CoLI value of 47.8 and global rank of 151). Beirut was the 6^th most expensive Arab city on the 2025 Numbeo list with a CoLI value of 42.4, ranking 168^th globally.Therefore, prices in Beirut are 57.6% less expensive than those in New York City. Beirut also scored 18.1 in the Rent Price Index (implying that rent prices in Beirut are 81.9% less expensive than those in New York City), 33.5 in the Groceries Price Index (therefore prices of grocery items in Beirut are 66.5% lower than those in New York City), 41.2 in the Restaurant Price Index (implying restaurant prices in Beirut are 58.8% less expensive than in New York), and 32.0 in the Local Purchasing Power Index (meaning that the local purchasing power is 68.0% lower than that in New York City).

The historical evolution of the CoLI shows that prices in Beirut have generally been increasing over the period extending between 2019 and 2022 before starting a downturn. The hike in the CoLI values between the years 2019 and 2022 owes to the hyperinflationary environment, which followed the drastic devaluation of the Lebanese pound against the US dollar. The CoLI, however, dropped in the year 2023 to 80.3 before drastically decreasing to 48.2 in the index of 2024 and 42.4 in the index of 2025 amid the decline in the value of most covered indices.