GCC food bills among world’s cheapest, says survery

Qatar is the cheapest country in the world for grocery shopping, with Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabi also in the top six, according to research into global food bills.

The ranking, published by MoveHub, using data from Numbeo, was compiled to show the most expensive and cheapest places in the world to buy a week’s worth of shopping, based upon the local cost of grocery staples compare with local wages.

Topping the list of the least costly countries, a weekly shop in Qatar was found to cost just 2.62 percent of an average pay packed. Kuwait cam in third position, behind Macao, with 4.38 percent of average wages, while the UAE came fifth (6.5 percent) and Saudi Arabia sixth (6.5 percent).

Other countries in the top 10 include Singapore, Luxembourg, the US, Hong Kong, and Norway.

The list of most costly countries was led by Uganda, where a weekly shop was found to cost 275.86 percent of an average wage.

Ethiopia came second (257.24 percent), followed by Kenya (215.04 percent) and Zimbabwe (188.8 percent).

Also in the top 10 were Myanmar, Nepal, Tanzania, Cambodia, Zambia, and Bangladesh.

The remaining GCC countries also ranked among the cheapest in the world, with Oman coming in 15th position (8.94 percent), and Bahrain in 23^rd (10.95 percent).