The index measures the cost of everyday expenses, including rent, compared to New York City, taken as a baseline with a value of 100. It also refers to prices reported in relation to wages/income, or, respectively, the purchasing power of the population.
The Numbeo methodology is applied by direct comparison with New York: a score of 80 means that prices are 20% lower than in the American city, while values below this level indicate even greater differences. Accordingly, if the index is above 100, it indicates that life is more expensive in this country than in the Big Apple.
Evolution of Moldova
The Numbeo index in Moldova is floating. In 2020 it was 33.7, in 2021 – 32.7, in 2022 – 30.3, in 2023 – 32.3, in 2024 – 34.6.
Interestingly, it fell perceptibly in 2022, when the country had the highest inflation and rental prices almost doubled amid a massive influx of refugees from Ukraine.
The index is measured by five indicators:
- – The cost of renting a home. The index was 12.6 in 2025, rising to 14.7 in the current year.
- – Cost of living plus rent. This is a key indicator that covers all of a person’s expenses. Last year in Moldova it was 22.7, this year it rose to 26.4.
- – cost of basic foodstuffs: 2025 – 29.5, 2026 – 33.6.
- – price index in restaurants – last year it was 27.2, this year – 32.5.
- – The purchasing power of the population – it was 46.3, it became 54.1. Unlike others, this is a positive indicator, indicating that the average Moldovan citizen can now purchase more than half of the goods and services available to a New Yorker.
That is, there was a significant increase in all the main indicators of the index.
Moldova at the regional and global levels
Nevertheless, Moldova remains one of the cheapest countries in the world and in the region in terms of cost of living.
The cost of living index compares the prices of everyday expenses – food, restaurants, transportation, utilities and rent. In other words, Moldova’s 35.8 index allows us to directly compare our country not only with the United States, but also with other economies.
Moldova is among the countries with the lowest cost of living both in the region and at the European and global level. In the general index of the cost of living, our country has a score that puts it on 107th place out of 155, in the second half of the world ranking.
In the same price category are Mozambique, Honduras, Namibia, Zimbabwe (just above us) and Cambodia, with Fiji and Nicaragua below.
In Europe, Moldova ranks 41st out of 45. More expensive are Serbia (42.6) and Bulgaria (41.6), Romania (40.6) and Russia (36.5). Lower are North Macedonia (35.5), Belarus (30.5), Kosovo (29.1) and Ukraine (28.2).
Central European countries rank higher in the ranking with significantly higher living costs. For example, Hungary (46.9), Poland (47.3), Slovakia (49.6), Czech Republic (53).
Some small but important differences across the region are analyzed separately for the non-rent cost index, an index that mainly reflects the cost of food and everyday goods. Since eating out in restaurants is not such a massive indicator after all.
In the “cost of food” category, Moldova ranks 42nd in Europe, no matter how much they say that “everything is cheaper there”.
The most expensive
At the other end of the global ranking are the economies with the highest costs of living. In Europe, Switzerland leads the rankings with an index of over 110, followed by Iceland and Norway, as well as Denmark, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The most expensive places to live in the world are on American resort islands. They are the only ones surpassed by Switzerland: Bermuda, Cayman Islands and the US Virgin Islands.
From this point of view, Moldova remains much more affordable than most Western and even Southeastern economies, even with the rapid price increases of the last two years. The problem is that our prices are unstable.
Why Moldova’s index has grown so much over the year: monetary reasons
Since the comparison is made with a U.S. city and is made in U.S. dollars, in addition to the standard reasons (rising prices for food, rent, eating out in restaurants, and other components), we need to consider monetary factors.
The average annual inflation rate in Moldova in 2025 is about 6.8%-6.94%. Annual inflation by the end of the year was fixed at 6.84%. (At the same time, a significant price increase was observed in the services sector, about 14.8%, and food products rose in price by 5.6%).
And annual inflation in the U.S. in 2025 was only about 2.7-3%.
In parallel, the Moldovan leu (MDL) to US dollar (USD) exchange rate showed a strengthening trend in 2025, with the USD exchange rate falling by more than 2 lei in the first half of the year. While in January 2025 the exchange rate was around 18.92 MDL per USD, by July it had fallen to around 16.69-16.98 MDL. As of today, it has risen to 17.56 per USD, which is still more than a leu lower than at the beginning of last year.
Forecast
An economic crisis is currently unfolding in Moldova due to rising fuel prices. This crisis is also felt in the States, but something suggests that there it will not be as strong and comprehensive as in Moldova.
Also, the authorities are planning to increase VAT for restaurants from 8 to 18%, which will affect a specific section of the Numbeo index.
Based on this, we can assume that Moldova’s performance by the middle of the year, when the analytical company will publish its next forecast, will bring our country even closer to New York by most indicators (except, unfortunately, the purchasing power of the population).
