New Delhi: There is some good news and there is some bad news for city-dwellers in India — Mumbai and Delhi are among the world's least expensive cities. However, the people do not get paid enough to splurge as wages in the two cities are also among the lowest in the world.

The gross earnings in Indian cities are less than 10 per cent of the wages in top-ranked cities.

According to a study conducted by Swiss banking major UBS, Mumbai has emerged as the second least expensive city, while Delhi is the fourth least expensive.

At the same time, Delhi has been ranked lowest in the earnings chart with a gross hourly average wage of $6.1, as against Copenhagen's $118.2.

UBS said in its Price and Earnings 2006 report, published on Wednesday, that a Delhiite needs to work for 59 minutes to buy a large McDonalds burger, which is higher than the global average of 35 minutes of work.

In contrast, in U.S. cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami a maximum of 13 minutes are needed for a Big Mac, while the time period jumps to as high as one and a half hours in Nairobi.

Among the 71 cities covered, Oslo, London, Copenhagen, Zurich and Tokyo are the five most expensive, excluding the cost of housing. However, if rents are included the living costs are the highest in London and New York.

Mumbai is 70th in the living cost chart, excluding rent, up one notch from its 71st position in the 2005 ranking. New Delhi is 68th.

The rankings were given on the basis of the cost of a shopping basket consisting of 95 goods and 27 services, which costs $38.5 in Mumbai and $42.8 in Delhi, in contrast to as high as $121.5 in Oslo and more than $100 in London, Copenhagen, Zurich, Tokyo, Geneva and New York.

Food costs are the lowest in Mumbai and highest in Tokyo. A basket of goods with 39 foodstuffs costs $174 in Mumbai, $195 in Delhi and as high as $723 in the Japanese capital.

Indian cities again rank below the line in terms of wages. Gross earnings are the highest in Scandinavia, while Switzerland, Copenhagen, Oslo, Zurich and Geneva also rank high in the global comparison of wages. Gross wages in Mumbai, Delhi and other Asian cities such as Jakarta and Manila are less than 10 per cent of those in the top-ranked cities.

While gross hourly wages average $16-17 in Europe and North America, in Asia they drop to an average of $5 an hour before taxes and social security contributions. — PTI

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