S’pore 10th most expensive city

Source : Today – 8 Jul 2009

SINGAPORE is now the 10th most-expensive city in the world for expatriates, according to a survey conducted by human resource and financial consultant Mercer. The Republic climbed three places from last year, knocking Italy’s Milan out of 10th place in this year’s Worldwide Cost of Living survey.

The most expensive city for expatriates is Tokyo, which overtook Moscow. Osaka moved to No 2 after the yen strengthened against the United States dollar. The Russian capital, which had held the top spot since 2006, slipped to third but retained its position as the most expensive European city.

Analysts said many of the changes in this year’s ranking were due to considerable currency fluctuations worldwide. For example, London dropped out of the world’s top 10 most expensive cities for expatriates for the first time since 2001, sliding to 16th place from third spot last year, as both the pound and rental prices slumped.

In Asia, Chinese cities are on the rise as the yuan gained strength over others. Beijing, for instance, is up to ninth place this year. All the US cities have become more expensive, with New York City jumping to 8th place because of the stronger US dollar.

Johannesburg is the world’s cheapest city.