World’s cheapest city 2014: The entertainment capital of India, Mumbai, is the least expensive city to live in the planet. The results of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey for 2014 conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows that it delivers best value for dollars spent.

India’s “City of Dreams” received the label after taking into account the concept of value of money – how much bread would you get for one dollar or for that matter a liter of petrol.

The given example was buying 1 kg of bread in Mumbai would cost $0.91 while in Delhi it would be $1.05 as against $3.36 in Singapore. The latter has outranked Tokyo as the world’s most expensive city to live in this year. According to the survey, the average cost of one liter unleaded petrol in Mumbai is $1.21 and in Delhi $1.14 as against $2.50 in Paris – the world’s second most expensive city.

The survey showed that Singapore topped 131 cities globally to become the world’s most expensive city to live in, which shows that both the cheapest city to live in the world and most expensive are in Asia.

“Within Asia the best value for money spent is in the Indian subcontinent (defined as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka). Mumbai is the cheapest location in the survey and three of the four cheapest cities surveyed hail from Pakistan, India, and Nepal. Mumbai’s title as the world’s cheapest city and is reflection of the structural factors that define price within the Indian subcontinent.”

"Although India has been tipped for future growth, much of this is driven by its large population and the untapped potential within the economy. Income inequality means that low wages proliferate, driving down household spending and creating many tiers of pricing that keep per capita spending low. This, combined with a cheap and plentiful supply of goods into cities, as well as government subsidies on some products, has kept prices down, especially by western standards."

The Worldwide Cost of Living Survey gathers detailed information on the cost of more than 160 items – from food, toiletries and clothing to domestic help, transport and utility bills – in every city. There were more than 50,000 individual prices collected in each survey round.

Rounding up the 10 least expensive cities to live in the world are:

1. Mumbai (India)

2. Karachi (Pakistan)

3. New Delhi (India)

4. Damascus (Syria)

5. Kathmandu (Nepal)

6. Algiers (Algeria)

7. Bucharest (Romania)

8. Panama City (Panama)

9. Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)

10. Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)