Angola's capital the 'most expensive city' for expats
NEW YORK, August 28, 2015
Despite being recognised as a relatively inexpensive city, the cost of imported goods and safe living conditions in the country are available at a steep price, said Mercer's 2015 Cost of Living Survey.
The survey included 2017 cities across five continents and measured the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each locations, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer's costliest cities for expatriates included Hong Kong, Zurich (Switzerland), Singapore, Geneva (Switzerland), Shanghai and Beijing (China) Seoul (Korea), Bern (Switzerland) and N'Djamena (Chad), it said.
The survey found that factors including instability of housing markets and inflation for goods and services impacts significantly the overall cost of doing business in a global environment.
Ilya Bonic, senior partner and president of Mercer's Talent business, said: “As the global economy has become increasingly interconnected, close to 75 per cent of multinational organisations are expecting long-term expatriate assignments to remain stable or increase over the next two years to address business needs.
“Sending employees abroad is necessary to compete in markets and for critical talent, and employers need a reliable and accurate reflection of the cost to their bottom line.”
The world’s least expensive cities for expatriates, according to Mercer’s survey, werer Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Windhoek (Namibia), and Karachi (Pakistan).
“Aligning workforce and mobility strategies by ensuring the right employees are in the right places is more critical than ever to manage globalization,” said Bonic. “
Properly compensating employees on international assignments is as important as it is costly.”
Meanwhile, Tel Aviv (Israel) continued to be the most expensive city in the Middle East for expatriates, followed by Dubai, Abu Dhabi (UAE), and Beirut (Lebanon), which have all climbed in this year’s ranking.
Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), on the other hand, continued to be the least expensive city in the region despite rising 24 places.
Nathalie Constantin-Métral, Principal at Mercer with responsibility for compiling the survey ranking, said: “Many currencies in the Middle East are pegged to the US dollar, which pushed the cities up in the ranking.
"Steep increase for expatriate rental accommodations particularly in Abu Dhabi and Dubai also contributed to the increase of the cities in the ranking.”
Elsewhere, India’s most expensive city, Mumbai, climbed 66 places in the ranking due to its rapid economic growth, inflation on the goods and services basket, and a stable currency against the US dollar.
This most populous city in India was followed by New Delhi and Chennai, while Bangalore and Kolkata were the least expensive Indian cities, climbed in the ranking, as well. - TradeArabia News Service
