THE MOST EXPENSIVE CITY FOR FOREIGNERS

William Law - Dec 16, 2008
0
Listen to this article 00:01:58
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

The British consulting agency ECA International has recently published its annual report about the most expensive city in the world for foreigners to live. The study compared the prices of 125 consumer goods and services commonly used by expatriates in 370 locations around the world.

The study did not include the cost of accommodation or school education, because, according to ECA, they all are mainly paid by the employers. The results are notably influenced by the world financial crisis. For instance, London (one of the most expensive cities last year) plummeted from 10th to the 72nd position this year!

The most expansive city for foreigners in the world is Luanda, the capital of Angola. Luanda’s first place was unexpected for many readers. However, last year the capital of Angola also took the first place. According to ECA that could be explained by the fact that the products used by expatriates are rare and therefore expensive. Africa also owns the cheapest city for the foreigners to live, namely Maseru (Lesotho).

Another surprising point was to see 4 (!) Japanese cities in the top 5! None of them featured in the top ten last year, but this year Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kobe rushed into the list due to the sharp appreciation of the yen.

The most expansive European city was named Moscow (the 6th place in the world-rating). Abuja (Nigeria), Copenhagen, Oslo and Geneva enclose the top-10 rating.

 

The most expensive cities in 2008:

1. Luanda (Angola) 

2. Tokyo (Japan)   

3. Yokohama (Japan)

4. Nagoya (Japan)  

5. Kobe (Japan)  

6. Moscow (Russia)

7. Abuja (Nigeria)  

8. Copenhagen (Denmark)

9. Oslo (Norway)

10. Geneva (Suisse)

 

Related articles

Comments

Add Comment