Mumbai beats Delhi to become most expensive Indian city for expats
1 min read 24 Jul 2013, 05:20 PM ISTLuanda in Angola overtakes Tokyo to become the most expensive city in the world for expats, finds Mercer survey
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New Delhi: Mumbai has beaten New Delhi to become India’s most expensive city for expatriates to live in, according to the latest global survey released by consulting firm Mercer on Wednesday.
Luanda, Angola has overtaken Tokyo to become the most expensive city in the world for expatiates, the survey found. Although European cities dominate the world’s costliest locations for expatriates, several Asian cities also figure among the top 10. The survey covers 214 cities across five continents.
Tokyo is ranked third, Singapore fifth and Hong Kong the sixth most expensive city, according to the survey that looks at cost of transportation, accommodation, food, clothing and household goods in each of these cities.
The rankings of Indian cities suggest that cost of living has become affordable over the past two years. In the previous survey released in 2012, New Delhi (113) and Mumbai (114) dropped considerably by 28 and 19 places, respectively, becoming relatively cheaper for expatriates to live in. However, in 2013, Mumbai ranked 118 on the index while Mercer did not immediately provide New Delhi’s ranking.
Moscow is ranked the second most expensive city for expatriates and Ndjamena, Chad is the fourth most costly city.
“Recent world events, including economic and political upheavals, which resulted in currency fluctuations, cost inflation for goods and services, and volatility in accommodation prices have impacted these cities making them expensive," said Barb Marder, senior partner and Mercer’s global mobility practice leader in a press release.
Four European cities are among the top 10 most expensive despite moderate price increases in most European countries. Switzerland remains one of the costliest locations for expatriates despite decreasing or stable accommodation costs and a robust Swiss franc.
“The cost of living in cities across parts of Europe have generally gone up in the ranking as a result of the slight strengthening of local currencies against the US dollar, whereas in Asia about half of the cities went down in the ranking—Japan especially—due to local currencies’ weakening against the US dollar," said Nathalie Constantin-Métral, principal at Mercer with responsibility for compiling the survey ranking.
