Latin American countries with the lowest and highest cost of living: Where does Colombia rank?

He cost of living It is an indicator that reflects how much money people spend, on average, to cover their basic needs and desires. That is, it is the calculation that includes the goods and services that households need to consume to achieve a certain level of satisfaction.

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With that in mind, the Numbeo platform analyzes more than 500 cities around the world in relation to the average price of different consumer goods (such as food, restaurants, transportation and utilities) to provide a guide to how much it costs to maintain your standard of living.

The tool uses New York City (United States) as a base to give a score. Considering that the index of the ‘Big Apple’ is 100, if the value exceeds this amount it means that it is more expensive to live there and vice versa.

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The case of Latin America

Paraguay is positioned as the Latin American country where it is most economical to live, since Its Cost of Living Index is 24.10.

In the case of services, for example, data collected by Numbeo shows that a household spends, on average, 49 dollars (about 206,000 Colombian pesos) per month. This amount includes paying for electricity, heating, cooling, water and garbageand is measured based on the costs of an 85 square meter apartment.

For rent, costs vary depending on the type of property. For a one-bedroom apartment in the urban center of Paraguay, The monthly rental cost is close to $400. (1,684,400 Colombian pesos); while in one outside the center it averages 299 dollars (1,259,089 Colombian pesos).

If we look at the topic of food, a basic grocery bag with 19 items costs approximately 36 dollars, that is, 151,596 Colombian pesos on average.

Uruguay

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Which one is the most expensive?

The crown in this matter goes to Uruguay. Numbeo data gives this country a score of 51.20.

In fact, if we look beyond the information provided by the platform, the country ranks 37th on a scale among 146 economies worldwide, ranking above places like Japan or Spain.

To better understand the upward trend that has been established in that part of South America, the Center for Development Studies (CED), at the request of the Uruguayan central bank, conducted a comparison of 600 products in Uruguay and 43 other nations.

According to research, more developed countries such as France, Germany or the United Kingdom They showed lower prices than those that can be found in Uruguayan cities such as Rivera or Monte Video.

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