In what city would you be if a house cost around $10,000 month to rent, a sandwich and a soda cost over $20, a hotel room is upwards of $400 a night, a kilogram of imported tomatoes is a staggering $16, and a Barbie cake for a kid’s birthday costs a whopping $360?

If you guessed Moscow, Tokyo, or Zurich you’d be wrong. The correct answer is Luanda, the capital of the African nation of Angola.

So why is Luanda the most expensive city? According to the BBC:

There are several reasons. The main one is that Angola lived through a long civil war which started in 1975, when the country gained independence from Portugal, and continued right up until 2002.

Infrastructure is in poor shape after more than 20 years of civil war

During that time most industry, agriculture and local production stopped and basic infrastructure including roads, railways, electricity lines and water supplies were badly damaged.

Having once been a major exporter of products like coffee and cotton, and self-sufficient in most foods, Angola now imports an estimated 80% of its consumable goods.

This is interesting, even if the rest of the press doesn’t recognize Luanda as the world’s most expensive city.