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From a city playing 'catch-up' with developed nations to reinventing itself as the 'City of the Future', the Emirate of Dubai propelled ahead at unprecedented growth rates in a bid to position itself as number one - in everything. Steaming ahead at an extraordinary pace, the 'fantastical metropolis' also witnessed a subtle, yet unwanted rise in consumer prices, with the upward trend for basic commodities and utilities set to accelerate even further during the coming years. With income levels stagnating in the wake of a sluggish economy and purchasing power seemingly eroded by the 'add-on' of the value-added tax, the rise in prices of staple food items and grocery bills essentially started to weigh upon the consumer price inflation basket. With an invisible upward force already being applied to rentals in the build-up to Expo 2020, Dubai was set to rise even further up the 2017 Cost of Living Survey conducted by Mercer; a report which already tagged the Emirate as the 20th most expensive city in the world. As real wages across the region dropped, courtesy inflation and diminished purchasing power, would the Emirate add another, albeit less favourable, 'numero uno' to its shelf? Would the expatriate residents of Dubai continue to struggle with inflated grocery bills as the city triumphantly ushered in the Expo 2020 era? Or would the 'City of the Future' curb the upward inflationary spiral and retain its image as the land of dreams and opportunity?