Expats' Most Expensive Cities in the World in 2021
Singapore moved from fifth place to seventh, according to the Mercer index. Photo: AFP
Most Expensive Cities in the World in 2021: Turkmenistan's capital, in Central Asia, has been named the world's most expensive city for foreign workers.
Ashgabat, a city of about one million people, ranked first in Mercer's cost-of-living survey for 2021.
Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan in Central Asia, is the most expensive city to live in this year, according to Mercer's Cost of Living Survey.
The annual report ranks 209 cities according to the cost of living expenditures such as housing, transportation, food, entertainment, with New York City serving as a benchmark.
According to Mercer, it evaluated more than 200 goods and services for the report, which is intended to assist companies and governments around the world in determining how much to pay expatriate employees.
The ranking establishes Ashgabat ahead of last year's most expensive city, while Hong Kong, which was ranked second, and followed by Beirut, Lebanon, and Tokyo, Japan.
Hong Kong, ranked second this year, slipped from the top position last year in Mercer's cost of living index. Photo: AFP
The majority of the cities in Mercer's top ten are corporate centres and business centres where economic growth has resulted in an increase in the cost of housing and other living expenses.
As per Mercer's Jean-Philippe Sarra, 'high local inflation' stated the journey of how Ashgabat rose from the second place to the first in the past one year.
Turkmenistan, recognised for its autocratic government and vast gas reserves, has been witnessing a long-running economic downturn that has reduced many citizens to impoverishment. Inflation and food prices rose in 2014 as a result of a global drop in energy prices.
The whole world has been going through a tough time due to the pandemic since last year. Similarly Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported in September last year that the Covid-19 pandemic had dramatically aggravated Turkmenistan's pre-existing food crisis.
Even with this, the Turkmen government began a major expansion of Ashgabat in May. Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the country's long-serving president, has promised to make the capital 'one of the most prosperous cities in the world.'
Mercer said that the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the Port of Beirut explosion, have indeed exacerbated the economic effects, resulting in record-high inflation.
Mercer cites Turkmenistan's continuous financial crisis, which has resulted in food shortages and hyperinflation, as the reason Ashgabat's cost of living has risen in recent years.
The most significant change from last year's Mercer survey is that Beirut has risen from the 45th most expensive city for international workers in 2020 to the third most expensive in 2021.
Beirut rose to rank the third most expensive city globally as a result of a severe economic depression, Covid-19 and the Port of Beirut explosion in 2020.
Meanwhile, three Swiss cities made the top ten, including Zurich, which fell to fifth place. Shanghai climbed one place to sixth place among the priciest Chinese cities, whereas Beijing went up to ninth.
Shanghai ranked sixth in the Mercer cost of living index in 2021
Singapore, an island city-state known for its thriving financial sector, finished seventh. The survey ranked Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek as the least expensive city for foreign employees at the bottom of the list.
Top 10 most expensive cities in 2021
1. Ashgabat (Turkmenistan)
2. Hong Kong (China)
3. Beirut (Lebanon)
4. Tokyo (Japan)
5. Zurich (Switzerland)
6. Shanghai (China)
7. Singapore
8. Geneva (Switzerland)
9. Beijing (China)
10. Bern (Switzerland)