According to Mercer, a major US financial consultancy firm, not a single US or Australian city, is close to being in the ten most expensive cities in the world.
Mercer Cost of Living Survey 2021 ranks Ashgabat in Turkmenistan as the most expensive city globally, followed by Hong Kong, the topper of 2020.
Mercer says it studied 209 cities across five continents and compared the cost of more than 200 items like housing, transportation, food, clothes, shoes.
Lebanon’s capital Beirut was considered the third most expensive, rising 42 positions in the ranking “as a result of the political turmoil of the last few years,” according to Mercer.
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Tokyo (4) and Zurich (5) each dropped one spot, while Switzerland is the only country to have three cities, including Geneva (8) and Bern (10) in the top 10.
No US city could make it in the top 10 of the list. According to Mercer, the most expensive US city is New York (14), which has slipped eight places since last year. Los Angeles is at number 20. Britain’s capital London (18), is up by one place.
Here is the list of the 20 most expensive cities:
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Beirut, Lebanon
Tokyo, Japan
Zurich, Switzerland
Shanghai, China
Singapore, Singapore
Geneva, Switzerland
Beijing, China
Bern, Switzerland
Seoul, South Korea
Shenzhen, China
Ndjamena, Chad
New York City, United States
Tel Aviv, Israel
Copenhagen, Denmark
Guangzhou, China
London, United Kingdom
Lagos, Nigeria
Libreville, Gabon
“Our Cost of Living Survey highlights the importance of monitoring currency fluctuations and assessing the inflationary and deflationary pressures on goods, services and accommodation in all operating locations. But the latest data show few significant price variances resulting from the pandemic as various measures were adopted by governments worldwide, such as lowering or refraining from collecting value-added tax for a period of time,” Mercer said in a statement.
NRI Affairs News Desk
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