‘As a result of the depreciation of the local currency against the American dollar, most cities in Eastern and Central Europe went down in the ranking. Prague (142) Budapest (170) and Minsk (200) dropped by 50, 35 and 9 places respectively although the level of rents was kept in these localities. Bucharest is in the same situation. Sofia and Beograd follow the trend and go to position 187 and 196 respectively being cheaper than Bucharest. Warsaw has a downward trend in the costs of maintenance and gets to position 175, from the position 142 in 2014’ shows the press release of the consultancy company.
In 2013 Bucharest was placed 169.
According to the study Cost of Living 2015 made by Mercer, the Asian and European cities, HongKong (2) Zurich (3), Singapore (4) and Geneva (5) dominate the top of the most expensive cities for expats. The first place is taken for the third time, by Luanda, the capital city of Angola. Although this city is not perceived as an expensive city, the imported goods and the safety conditions and the comfort for expats are available at high prices.
Other cities which appear in the top 10 are Shanghai (6), Beijing (7) and Seul (8) in Asia, Berna (9) in Europe and N’Djamena (10) in Africa. The cheapest cities for the expats are Bi?kek, the capital city of Kirghiztan (207), Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia (206) and Karachi, Pakistan (205).
Mercer Cost of Living, one of the most comprehensive studies of this kind is created to help the multinational companies and the governments to determine the level of remuneration for employees transferred abroad. New York is used as reference, so all the other cities are compared to this one. The foreign currency movements are measured against the American dollar.
The study covers 207 cities on the five continents and measures by comparison over 200 products and services in each of these localities. They include the costs for transport, residence, food, clothing, household appliances and entertainment services.
Mercer is a global consultancy company in the domain of health, remuneration and career and is represented on the market in Romania by the sister company Marsh. (source: actmedia.eu)
