Tokyo has this year become the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, pushing Luanda in Angola, which topped the list last year, down to second position.
Japan has two more cities, Osaka and Nagoya, in the Top 10 list at third and tenth places, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2012 by Mercer. Singapore (No. 6 on the list) and Hong Kong (No. 9) are the other Asian cities in the Top 10 list.
Moscow retains its fourth spot, Geneva is at fifth position on the index, followed by Zurich in sixth place. Ndjamena in Chad has dropped five places to eighth spot on the index to complete the Top 10 list.
Mercer conducts the survey of 214 cities annually by taking New York as the base city scoring 100 points. It measures the comparative cost of over 200 items, including transport, food, clothing, household goods, entertainment and housing. New York City at No. 33 is the most costly city in the US.
Pakistan’s port city of Karachi at 214 is ranked as the world’s least expensive city for expatriates, less than one-third as expensive as Tokyo. Islamabad is a bit expensive compared to Karachi at 213 on the index.
The Indian cities, with the exception of Chennai, have all dropped ranks on the index. New Delhi (113) and Mumbai (114) have dropped considerably, by 28 and 19 places respectively. Bengaluru has dropped seven places to 187 and Kolkata has dropped five places to 208.
Chennai is the only exception in the Indian cities to have increased its ranking, however minuscule: The capital of Tamil Nadu has jumped four spots from last year to 190 this year. This has been attributed to the weakening of the Indian rupee. “The 214 cities included in Mercer Cost of Living rankings are compared against New York which is the base city, and currency fluctuations are measured against the US dollar. Indian cities, except Chennai, have gone down in the 2012 rankings when compared to last year due to the weakening of the Indian rupee against the US dollar by more than 8.5 per cent in one year,” Nathalie Constantin-Métral, Mercer spokesperson, who is responsible for compiling the ranking each year, told this newspaper. Recent world events, including economic and political upheavals, have affected the rankings for many regions through currency fluctuations, inflation, and volatility in accommodation prices, she added.