The city moves up the rankings for a third year running from 49th to 47th position, according to the latest annual Cost of Living Survey by consultancy firm Mercer. The study was conducted with a view to helping companies plan renumeration packages for employees depending on which city they live in.
Advertisement
Returning to the GCC, Riyadh is the 57th most expensive city in the world, a significant difference from its 71st place last year; Manama, Bahrain sees its ranking at 71st, differing from 91st last year; Doha is 76th, up from 99th last year; Muscat comes in at 94th, jumping from 117th last year; Kuwait City is 103rd, also climbing from 117th position in 2015; lastly Jeddah is 121st, a change from 151st last year.
Comparative cost This year’s ranking lists 209 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
The 2016 list was topped by Hong Kong, Luanda, Zurich, Singapore and Tokyo. Kinshasa, ranked sixth, appears for the first time in the top 10, moving up from thirteenth place.
Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer’s costliest cities for expatriates were Shanghai (7), Geneva (8), N’Djamena (9), and Beijing (10). These requirements, plus the need for the houses and flats to be safe and secure, may help explain why the top 10 includes some cities that not everyone would expect to be judged the world’s priciest.
For instance, Brisbane (96) and Canberra (98) dropped 30 and 33 spots, respectively, while Sydney (42), Australia’s most expensive ranked city for expatriates, experienced a relatively moderate drop of 11 places.
The rise in the rankings for the UAE cities is more to do with the fact that the U.S. dollar, which the Dirham is pegged to, hasn’t fallen as much as other global currencies.
New York City is used as the base for comparing costs.
Advertisement
“But whilst currency fluctuations will always cause a major impact on costs, local conditions like high property prices can counterbalance the impact of currency movements, as demonstrated with United Kingdom and Western European cities”.
