From BZ/dpa
According to a study, life in Berlin is above average expensive, but cheaper than in other major German cities.
At the top of the list of the most expensive cities is Munich, where housing and living costs are 25.1 percent higher than the national average. This is shown by a study published on Friday by the German Economic Institute (IW) and the Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research.
According to the price index, which covers housing costs and private consumption such as food, clothing and services, life in Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Cologne and Düsseldorf is also more expensive than in Berlin. The capital ranks 40th in the comparison scale with all 400 districts and independent cities.
Housing costs in particular shape differences in the cost of living. According to the price index for pure housing costs, Munich is almost 54 percent more expensive than Berlin. But according to the study, neighboring Potsdam also has slightly higher housing costs than the capital.
If housing costs are not taken into account, the differences in the cost of living are significantly smaller. The IW cites ordering online, food from discounters, clothing from fashion chains and supermarkets’ own brands as examples.
The Economic Institute and the Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research worked on the development of the price index for three years, partly using automatic data queries on the Internet. The calculations are based on around 24 million pieces of data, some of which were imported automatically.