Beer, cars, dates: How expensive is Singapore versus other cities?

There are some items people shouldn’t get in Singapore if they can avoid it.

Beer, cigarettes or cars, for example.

Drinking beer in a neighbourhood pub in an expat area in the city-state will set you back US$8.93, the most expensive out of 39 cities, according to the "Mapping the World's Prices 2016" report released by Deutsche Bank last week.

The price of a new Volkswagen car in Singapore is also the highest among the cities surveyed at US$98,418, costing almost four times as much as one in New York City, the annual survey of global prices noted.

In general, Singapore is a pricey place to indulge in bad habits. Enjoying five beers and two packs of cigarettes in the country means kissing goodbye US$64.9, just a little less than in Melbourne, which tops the report’s sin index list.

There were several other items and services that Singapore ranked in the top ten as the most expensive city to get them.

A month of gym membership in the business district costs US$104.2, not as much as in Tokyo, Zurich and Moscow, but a little more than in San Francisco.

A litre of petrol in Singapore at US$1.58 is far less expensive than top-ranked Hong Kong at $1.93, but it still puts the city in seventh place.

For a full course dinner for two at an Italian restaurant, be prepared to shell out US$106.4, that’s a little more than in Stockholm and London, the ninth- and tenth-placers, respectively.

However, there are some things that you can get relatively cheaply in Singapore than in other cities.

According to the survey, Singapore ranks low in terms of the cost of going on a cheap date (US$98.6), taking public transport (US$0.58) and watching a movie (US$8.6).

Also, an iPhone 6 is also much cheaper in the island-nation at US$661, as compared to the countries that topped the list – Brazil (US$931), Indonesia (US$865) and Sweden (US$796).