Ashgabat world’s most expensive city for foreign workers, Mumbai drops 18 places: Report

The survey used New York City, ranked 14 on the list, as the base city and currency movements were measured against the US dollar.

Turkmenistan’s capital city Ashgabat has become the world’s most expensive city for foreign workers, according to this year’s Mercer Cost of Living Survey. The annual report has ranked 209 cities across five continents by measuring the comparative cost of more than 200 items, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. The survey used New York City, ranked 14 on the list, as the base city and currency movements were measured against the US dollar.

Mumbai remains India’s most expensive city at 78th rank but has dropped 18 places in this year’s ranking. (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

List of top 10 expensive cities mostly features global financial hubs like Hong Kong, which was the priciest last year, Tokyo, Shanghai, Zurich and Singapore. Mercer has cited Turkmenistan’s ongoing financial crisis as the reason for Ashgabat's high cost of living. Another outlier on the list is third-ranked Beirut which climbed 42 positions up the ranking due to a severe and extensive economic depression owing to several crises, including coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the Port of Beirut explosion in 2020.

Mumbai remains India’s most expensive city at 78th rank but has dropped 18 places in this year’s ranking “due to a relatively weak Indian rupee in comparison with other cities in the ranking.” Other Indian cities on the list are New Delhi (117), Chennai (158), Bengaluru (170), and Kolkata (181).

No American city has featured in the top 10 list “mostly due to currency fluctuations between March 2020 and March 2021.” Among European cities, Zurich (5) remains the most costly followed by Geneva (8) and Bern (10). On the other hand, the world’s least expensive city for international employees, according to the survey, is Bishkek (209), followed by Lusaka (207) and Tbilisi (207).

Here’s the list of the top 25 priciest cities for foreign workers:

• Ashgabat
• Hong Kong
• Beirut
• Tokyo
• Zurich
• Shanghai
• Singapore
• Geneva
• Beijing
• Bern
• Seoul
• Shenzhen
• N’Djamena
• New York City
• Tel Aviv
• Copenhagen
• Guangzhou
• London
• Lagos
• Libreville
• Los Angeles
• Taipei
• Osaka
• Abidjan
• San Francisco

Check the full ranking here.