Dubai is one of only four cities in the world where the rent for an average unfurnished three-room apartment is more than $3,000 a month, according to a recent study.

 

The other cities include London at $3,350, Hong Kong at $4,220, and New York at $4,320, said the 16th edition of the UBS Prices and Earnings study.

 

The study examined prices, wages and earners' purchasing power in 71 cities worldwide.

 

It has been published roughly every three years since 1971, and compiles over 68,000 data points reflecting economic events that have shaped the world since the last edition in 2012.

 

The most expensive were Zurich , Geneva and New York City, according to the prices for a standardised basket of 122 goods and services. 

 

In terms of wages, workers in Zurich, Geneva and Luxembourg earned the highest gross wages. Manama workers earned the highest average net wages in the Middle East. 

 

Meanwhile, in Nairobi, Jakarta and Kiev, the lowest-ranked cities, workers received only around five per cent of average gross earnings in Zurich.

 

How many hours' earnings buy a Big Mac or an iPhone?

 

The wage value has been best described by comparing domestic purchasing power for goods that are as homogenous as possible worldwide. 

 

The salaries go farthest in Luxembourg, Zurich and Geneva, where the net hourly wage buys the most goods and services from the standardised basket. Nairobi and Jakarta have the lowest purchasing power, affording just one-tenth as much as workers in Luxembourg. In Cairo, an iPhone 6 costs 353 hours' average earnings, longer than any other Middle Eastern city in the study.

 

The shortest working hours were found to be in Paris, while Manama had the most paid vacation, with an average of 34 days a year. - TradeArabia News Service