Moscow is the world's most expensive city for expatriate employees for the second consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
The survey covers 143 cities and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. The survey is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.
The survey found that the 5 most expensive cities to live are:
- Moscow
- London
- Seoul
- Tokyo
- Hong Kong
Asuncion in Paraguay is the least expensive city for the fifth year running. With New York as the base city scoring 100 points, Moscow scores 134.4 and is over two-and-a-half times costlier than Asuncion , which has an index of 50.Even so, the gap between the world's most and least expensive cities appears to be narrowing, according to the survey.
Costly European cities included Copenhagen in 6th place (110.2), Geneva in 7th (109.8), and Zurich in 9th (107.6). Oslo remains in 10th place with a score of 105.8 while Milan climbs two places to position 11 (104.4). Sofia in Bulgaria is Europe 's least expensive city in 108th place with a score of 72.5.
New York remains the most expensive city in North America but drops five places to position 15 (score 100). The only other U.S. city to rank in the top 50 is Los Angeles (position 42, score 87.1).
