Alcohol prices are on the rise. Picture: NCA NewsWire \/ David Crosling <\/p>\n
The most expensive cities to buy a beer in the world have been revealed, and it comes with some bad news for Australian drinkers.<\/p>\n
Sydney and Melbourne claimed the top spots respectively to buy a 500ml bottle of domestic beer, with startling price rises for the drink revealed.<\/p>\n
A report by Deutsche Bank Research Institute mapped the prices for the cost of living and various goods in 69 cities across the world and suggests so-called sin taxes are making a pint more pricey.<\/p>\n
Buying a beer in Sydney now costs 60 per cent more than it would buying one in New York, with the average price in 2025 setting back a patron $7.25 (AUD).<\/p>\n
Australia has among the highest prices for a beer in the world. Picture: Mark Stewart \/ NewsWire
Alcohol prices are on the rise. Picture: NCA NewsWire \/ David Crosling <\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Melbourne, a beer costs 55 per cent more than in New York, with the average price in 2025 sitting at $7 (AUD).<\/p>\n
The prices are up 36.5 per cent in five years in Sydney, and 14.5 per cent in Melbourne, the report said.<\/p>\n
Part of this increase will be down to the weakening Aussie dollar against the US – one dollar was nearly 77 US cents when report was compiled for 2020, and 64.7 US cents for the 2025 prices from the report, which was released in June.<\/p>\n
How much a beer costs across the world<\/p>\n
Below are the top 10 most expensive cities to buy a beer:<\/p>\n
1. Sydney<\/p>\n
2. Melbourne<\/p>\n
3. Singapore<\/p>\n
4. Wellington<\/p>\n
5. Birmingham<\/p>\n
6. Oslo<\/p>\n
7. Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
8. Switzerland<\/p>\n
9. Geneva<\/p>\n
10. Helsinki<\/p>\n
London follows closely behind at number 11, with the average price in 2025 setting back a patron $4.91 (AUD).<\/p>\n
For an imported beer, Dubai, New York, Oslo, Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles are the most expensive places to drink a beer in a restaurant.<\/p>\n
One of the cost of living measures is a reference to rock band Oasis. Picture: Wikimedia commons <\/p>\n
The Oasis index<\/p>\n
Sydney and Melbourne also top the charts when it comes to the so-called Oasis index: the cost of five beers and two packets of cigarettes.<\/p>\n
The index is a reference to the song Cigarettes & Alcohol from the band\u2019s debut Definitely Maybe, and shows Sydney overtaking the Victorian capital from the 2020 study, with a price of 89 US$, or $136 for the haul.<\/p>\n
Wellington and Auckland were next on the list, followed by London, Dublin, Birmingham, Edinburgh. New York and Oslo rounded out the top 10.<\/p>\n
The report said: \u201cSydney now tops the list of the most expensive place in the world to buy cigarettes and beer, followed by Melbourne, Wellington, Auckland, and London.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo as well as the high price of Oasis reunion tour tickets, if you want the full experience at these gigs in these cities, it\u2019s going to be expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese top priced countries apply high sin taxes to discourage consumption and boost public finances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your lifestyle aligns more with the classic Oasis tune, you\u2019re better off in China, Brazil, or Egypt, where these vices are much cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australian cities didn\u2019t, however, make the list for the most expensive cup of coffee, with the most costly cities for a cup instead in Zurich, Copenhagen, New York, San Francisco, and Geneva.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alcohol prices are on the rise. Picture: NCA NewsWire \/ David Crosling The most expensive cities to buy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128148,64,63,99,128150,164,128147,647,128149],"class_list":["post-207102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alcohol-prices","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-deutsche-bank-research-institute","tag-economy","tag-imported-beer","tag-melbourne","tag-most-expensive-cities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}