The Israeli city of Tel Aviv was found to be the 9th most expensive city in the world, outranking Tokyo and New York, according to a list published by the Economist on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the MoveHub website has found Israel to be the 10th most expensive country in the world.
The MoveHub study looked at items such as basic and retail consumer goods, housing, transportation, power and water prices, as well as taxes and leisure costs.
Bermuda was named the world's most expensive country, followed by Switzerland and Iceland.
The Economist's annual ranking, meanwhile, compared the prices of over 150 items in 133 cities worldwide. It found that, for example, transportation costs in Tel Aviv were 79% higher than in New York.
Singapore was named the world's most expensive city, followed by Paris, which climbed five spots from last year, Zurich (+1), Hong Kong (-2), Oslo (+6), Geneva (+1), Seoul, Copenhagen (+1), Tel Aviv (+2) and Sydney, which moved up four spots from last year and rounded up the top 10 list.
In comparison, Bangalore, Chennai, Karachi, New Delhi, Damascus, Caracas, Almaty, Lagos, Algiers and Bucharest were featured among the top 10 cheapest cities this year.
The World Economic Forum said last year that Israel is among the five most expensive tourist destination.
Amir Kahanovich, chief economist at Excellence Nessuah Investment explained that "high prices alone do not reflect too much on a country, as it is the contributing factors that must be reviewed."
"In Israel's case," he explained, "a significant part of the high price does not stem from high wages or quality services provided by the state, but rather by many hidden and unnecessary costs that are rolled onto consumer prices. Each line item may seem trivial on its own, but together they make Israel not only expensive but in many cases not very cost-effective."
