Living in Dubai

Filed in archive Global Economy on March 13, 2006

Here is an interesting account of how livable the golden city state Dubai is nowdays for expats:

"Anyone who has been in the emirate six months will know prices are rising. They will have felt that personally. How fast prices are rising depends upon the source you quote. The official inflation rate for the UAE last year was 4.1 per cent. Non-governmental sources quote hyper inflationary levels in Dubai of 25 to 40 per cent. Ouch.

What's more rising costs are not uniform, and some of the biggest areas of increase feel like a full frontal Panzer Assault on the quality of life. Rent, a weapon of mass destruction for wage earners, rose by up to 50 per cent last year according to the National Bank of Dubai. A recent survey showed that the total cost of educating a child in London to the age of 18 amounted to $81,750 compared to $146,000 in the UAE."