New Delhi most expensive Indian city for expats: Survey

Bangalore: New Delhi stood out as the most expensive Indian city according to a survey done by human resources consultancy Mercer, New Delhi is India's most expensive city for expatriates, followed by Mumbai and Bangalore.

While Delhi is ranked 85th, Mumbai comes in at 95 and Bangalore at 180 Chennai, Kolkata ranked 195th and 207th on the global list respectively, according to the study, which rates Tokyo as the most expensive city in Asia for expatriates. Singapore passed Hong Kong to become the costliest place in the region outside of Japan. Tokyo retained its status as the second most expensive city in the world for expatriates after Luanda in Angola, which topped the list for the second year in a row.

Osaka in western Japan was the next most costly Asian city, ranked 6th in the world followed by Singapore at the world's number eight and Hong Kong at nine. "Most Asian cities have moved up in ranking as availability for expatriate accommodation is limited and demand is high," senior researcher Nathalie Constantin-Metral at Mercer said in a statement.

The survey conducted by Mercer covered 143 cities across six continents and measured the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It was a comprehensive cost of living survey used to help multinational companies and governments determine cost of living allowances for their expatriate employees. New York was used as the base city for the index, and all the cities were compared against it. Currency movements were measured against the US dollar.

The cost of housing, often the biggest expense for expats, plays an important role in determining the ranking of cities, the report added.

Two main factors determine a city's ranking in Mercer's Cost of Living survey:

1. The relative strength or weakness of the relevant currency against the US dollar over the prior 12 months; and

2. Price movements over the prior 12 months compared to those in New York City as the base.

Angola's Luanda topped global rankings as the priciest city for international assignees of companies to live in. It was followed by Japan's Tokyo (second), Ndjamena in Chad (third), Russia's capital Moscow (fourth) and Geneva in Switzerland (fifth). Other cities figuring in the top ten of the global rankings are Japan's Osaka (6th) and Libreville in Gabon (7th), while Switzerland's Zurich and Hong Kong occupy the same spot (8th) and Denmark's Copenhagen figures 10th. The majority of European cities moved down in the ranking with Warsaw experiencing the most dramatic change, plunging 78 places from 35th to 113th. London and Oslo, both formerly at the top 10, dropped 13 and 10 places, respectively.

Pakistan's Islamabad (212) and Karachi (214), and Nicaragua's Managua (213) were ranked at the bottom - as the least expensive cities in the world.

On the whole, a considerable reshuffle of cities can be seen in this year's ranking, mainly due to considerable currency fluctuations worldwide, the survey said.