Hong Kong ranked world’s third most expensive city for expats

A Star Ferry vessel is seen through a window as it passes by Two International Finance Centre (IFC)

Hong Kong has been ranked the third most expensive city in the world for expatriates in this year’s survey conducted by Mercer. Macau, however, has not been included on the list.
Published last week, Mercer’s 2014 Cost of Living Rankings shows that the neighboring SAR has moved up to third on the list, having ranked sixth last year. Three other Asian cities appear in the top 10, namely Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai. The latter had ranked fourteenth last year but made it to number 10 on this year’s list. Singapore ranked fourth, jumping up from fifth last year, whereas Tokyo dropped four places this year, ranking seventh.
Cities such as Beijing (11), Seoul (14) and Shenzhen (17) have also ranked high in the 2014 survey, having jumped a few spots when compared to last year’s list. According to Ms Nathalie Constantin-Métral, principal at Mercer with the responsibility of compiling the survey ranking, “Japanese cities have dropped in the ranking this year as a result of the yen’s weakening against the US dollar…However, Chinese cities jumped in the ranking, including Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen, due to the strengthening of the Chinese yuan.”
The world’s most expensive city for expats is still Luanda in Angola – which has been ranked first two years in a row. Although highly affected by poverty, Luanda has the highest cost of living for expats, partly because of the country’s reliance on imports.
According to Reuters, Angola imports three quarters of the products it consumes. Moreover, an oil and construction boom have attracted foreign workers to the city, which is said to have driven prices higher, according to CNBC.
Following Luanda in the list is N’Djamena, in Chad (Africa), Hong Kong, Singapore, Zurich and Geneva (Switzerland), Tokyo, Bern (Switzerland), Moscow and Shanghai.
Other European cities ranked high on the list are London (12), which jumped from 25th, and Copenhagen in Denmark (15).
The study compared the cost of living in 211 cities worldwide.