While Taipei is the nation’s most expensive city, it is still far cheaper than Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Beijing, Mercer’s latest survey shows.
Mercer’s 2010 Cost of Living survey showed that Tokyo (No. 2) and Osaka (No. 6) are the most expensive cities in Asia. Other highly ranked cities in the region were Hong Kong, which placed eighth, Singapore (11), Seoul (14), Beijing (16), Nagoya (19) and Shanghai (25). Taipei came in at No. 78.
Tokyo and Osaka continue to be among the most expensive cities in the world, given the relative strength of the yen against other major currencies such as the US dollar, said Cathy Loose, a principal in Mercer’s Information Product Solutions business who is based in Tokyo.
Sydney (No. 24) was Australia’s most expensive city, followed by Melbourne (33) and Brisbane (55), while Adelaide (90) was the country’s least expensive city.
Auckland (149) was the most expensive city in New Zealand, while Wellington (163) was the cheapest.
Mercer said the rankings of these cities moved up this year because of the strength of the Australian and New Zealand dollars.
Elsewhere, Luanda, Angola, was the most expensive city inthe world, while Karachi, Pakistan, came in at the bottom as the cheapest place to live. After Luanda and Tokyo, the most expensive cities in the world were Ndjamena, Chad; Moscow and Geneva. Just ahead of Karachi as the least expensive cities were Islamabad and Managua.
In the Americas, Sao Paulo (No. 21) was ranked as the most expensive city. New York was second at No. 27, followed by Rio de Janeiro (29), Havana (45), Bogota (66) and Brasilia (70). Managua (212) was the least expensive.
There were few surprises in the US. New York was the most expensive, followed by Los Angeles (55) and White Plains, New York (83). The least expensive was Winston Salem, North Carolina (197). Vancouver (75) was the most expensive city in Canada, followed by Toronto (76) and Montreal (98), while Ottawa (136) was the least expensive.
Mercer, a human resources consulting firm, said the survey covered 214 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. New York is used as the base city for the index and all cities are compared against it, while currency movements are measured against the US dollar, Mercer said.
The survey is used to help multinational companies and governments decide compensation allowances for their expatriate employees, the report said.
A direct comparison cannot be made with last year’s rankings because more cities and items were added this year, Mercer said.
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