Costs of living in Baltic capital cities low Ð Financial Times

VILNIUS (BNS) Ð Cost of living in the Baltic capitals is comparatively low, and Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn all rank in the last third of the list of 156 most expensive cities in the world published by the Financial Times.

The list was drawn up by Britain's Inbucon research agency on the basis of expenses of families with two children of pre-school age.

Riga ranked 101st , Vilnius 121st and Tallinn 134th.

The sequence of the Baltic capitals corresponds to this summer's average monthly wages in the countries. In Latvia, the average wage was $247 dollars in the middle of 2000, while it was $264 in Lithuania and $300 in Estonia.

According to the research, Lebanese port city of Tripoli (not to be confused with the Libyan city of the same name) is the most expensive city in the world.

Cities of the Baltic and Nordic region, including Oslo, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki, are ranked among most expensive 25.

The cost of living in Riga is similar to Los Angeles, Zagreb and Tbilisi, while the costs in Vilnius were close Toronto and Houston. Tallinn costs are about the same those in Bucharest and Sarajevo.

The research suggests that living is especially inexpensive in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw, which are at the very end of the list.