Singapore has the 10th highest cost of living, but ...

Based on 2009 UBS Cost of Living Survey, Singapore has the 10th highest cost of living in the world (translated: one of the most expensive city in the world). Below shows the top 10 results from that 2009 survey:

Rank	City	Country
1	Tokyo	Japan
2	Osaka	Japan
3	Moscow	Russia
4	Geneva	Switzerland
5	Hong Kong	Hong Kong
6	Zurich	Switzerland
7	Copenhagen	Denmark
8	New York City	United States of America
9	Beijing	China
10	Singapore	Singapore

However, look at this 2009 richest city by purchasing power by UBS:

Rank	City
1	Zurich
2	Sydney
3	Luxembourg
4	Dublin
5	Miami
6	Los Angeles
7	Geneva
8	New York
9	Chicago
10	Nicosia
11	Berlin
12	Montreal
13	Brussels
14	Helsinki
15	London
16	Copenhagen
17	Toronto
18	Amsterdam
19	Frankfurt
20	Munich
21	Lyon
22	Stockholm
23	Tokyo
24	Vienna
25	Madrid
26	Milan
27	Paris
28	Oslo
29	Barcelona
30	Auckland
31	Lisbon
32	Athens
33	Dubai
34	Tel Avi
35	Taipei
36	Ljubljana
37	Moscow
38	Manama
39	Rome
40	Johannesburg
41	Hong Kong
42	Seoul
43	Tallinn
44	Prague
45	São Paulo
46	Doha
47	Bratislava
48	Rio de Janeiro
49	Kuala Lumpur
50	Singapore

And this 2009 richest city by personal earnings by UBS:

Rank	City
1	Copenhagen
2	Zurich
3	Geneva
4	New York
5	Oslo
6	Los Angeles
7	Munich
8	Luxembourg
9	Frankfurt
10	Dublin
11	Brussels
12	Helsinki
13	Miami
14	Chicago
15	Amsterdam
16	Berlin
17	Stockholm
18	Tokyo
19	Vienna
20	Sydney
21	London
22	Paris
23	Lyon
24	Toronto
25	Montreal
26	Milan
27	Nicosia
28	Madrid
29	Barcelona
30	Rome
31	Athens
32	Lisbon
33	Ljubljana
34	Auckland
35	Tel Avi
36	Dubai
37	Hong Kong
38	Seoul
39	Taipei
40	Singapore

If you look at the UBS personal earnings and purchasing power surveys for 2008, you will find that Singapore's ranking in those areas were higher in 2008 compared to 2009. It's also quite interesting that in the newest iPod survey, Singaporeans need to work 27.5 hours to buy an iPod Nano, ranked 40th in the list. First in the list by the way, only requires 9 hours of work.

So what does this signify? I believe the tables above are clear enough. We are increasingly being priced out of our own country. We're too productive?