Are you paying more for Zara and Apple in Singapore?

Are consumer items more expensive in Singapore than in other major cities? A study commissioned by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Trade and Industry Ministry (MTI) looked into this question recently.

Published this week, the study surveyed 647 items sold by tech store Apple, furniture giant Ikea and fashion retailer Zara across 11 major cities including Singapore. The other cities were Paris, London, Shanghai, New York, Taipei, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Sydney and Tokyo.

It found that shoppers here pay more for about two-thirds of the goods surveyed, but that Singapore was not the most expensive location for most of the items. For items that were pricier in Singapore than elsewhere, the price gap was generally not more than 20 per cent.

The MAS and MTI study did not release the prices of individual items that it surveyed, but The Straits Times did some online shopping to see how much Singapore consumers are paying compared with those in other cities. Interestingly, while Zara's products seemed more consistently expensive in Singapore than in other cities, products from Apple and Ikea were cheaper here.

Unlike the study commissioned by the MAS and MTI, which accounted for sales taxes and converted prices to US dollars based on 2012 exchange rates, our prices exclude sales taxes and are converted at current rates to Singapore dollars for easy reference.

Here's the difference in prices across seven cities at a glance: