News Mercer's Cost of Living Survey: Tokyo

Ashgabat, which has been named as the most expensive cities for overseas workers was last year on number two in the list of world's most expensive cities. Turkmenistan's ongoing financial crisis, which has led to food shortages and hyperinflation, is cited by Mercer as the reason why Ashgabat's cost of living has risen over the past couple of years. The biggest change from last year's Mercer survey sees Beirut rising from the 45th most expensive city for international workers in 2020 to the third priciest for 2021. Mercer puts this development down to Lebanon's economic depression, which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Port of Beirut explosion in August last year. Meanwhile, as the Euro gained almost 11 per cent against the US dollar, European cities were ranked comparatively more expensive than their US counterparts. This led to New York City dropping out of the Mercer top 10 altogether, while Paris climbed the rankings from number 50 in 2020 to number 33 in 2021. Similarly, the appreciation of the Australian Dollar saw Aussie cities like Sydney and Melbourne climb up Mercer's ranking. As for the cheapest cities for overseas workers, Mercer's ranking pinpoints Tbilisi, Georgia (number 207), Lusaka, Zambia (number 208) and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (number 209).

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Majestic said:

Yeah - Hong Kong I can sort of understand, but Ashgabat and Beirut... There must be some weird inputs going in to that calculation.

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Hong Kong topped the list of the priciest cities in the world, a return to pole position after ceding it to Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat in 2021. Hong Kong was previously named the most expensive city for three consecutive years to 2020. Asian cities occupied four of the top 10, with Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing accounting for places eight through 10. In a separate Asian top 10 ranking, Chinese cities filled six spots, a development Mercer put down to the Chinese yuan's strength making the country's mainland more expensive to live in. Conversely, a relative affordability rise in Japanese and Korean cities was attributed to the effects of their weaker currencies.

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