The Costliest And Cheapest Cities In The World: Mercer Report (instagram image@myswitzerland)
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Zurich are the world’s costliest cities for expats in 2024. These three retained their positions from last year while Islamabad, Lagos and Abuja ranked lowest in terms of living costs. Mumbai ranks the costliest city in India for expats while Delhi is at 165th position in the world, jumping four points up. Mumbai is at 136th place globally, which is 11 spots up from last year.
At the same time, Chennai slipped five spots down and Bengaluru slipped six points reaching 189th and 195th position respectively. Hyderabad is at 202; Pune is at 205 and Kolkata is at 207 in the list of the world’s most expensive cities for expats.
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Mercer’s Cost of Living City Ranking of 2024 was based on the analysis of 226 cities in the world, and is aimed at providing information on global mobility. The list assessed costs of over 200 items like housing, transport, food, clothing, and entertainment.
New York was the base city for the survey. As per the survey, multiple factors contributed to the increase in the cost of living like inflation, exchange rate variations, economic as well as geopolitical volatility and increasing conflicts.
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In cities like Hong Kong, the high cost of living is due to the expensive housing, high transportation costs, and costly goods and services, as shown in the survey. At the same time, currency depreciation resulted in lowering the cost of living in Islamabad, Lagos and Abuja, said the survey.
