For the second consecutive year, Hong Kong has been selected as the most expensive city for foreign residents to live in. New York City and Geneva, Switzerland, followed, and Seoul, South Korea, ranked 10th, down two steps from a year ago.
Bloomberg News reported on the 7th (local time) citing the results of a March survey by consulting firm ECA International. According to the survey, Hong Kong ranked first for two consecutive years following last year, while New York, the U.S., ranked fourth, rose to second place. It was followed by Geneva, London, England, Tokyo, Japan, Tel Aviv, Israel, Zurich, Switzerland, Shanghai, China, Guangzhou, China, and Seoul, South Korea. In the case of Seoul, it fell two steps from eighth place last year. The news agency explained, “Prices in London and New York rose 20% and 12% respectively due to soaring rents, making it in the top five.”
The cost-of-living report also said Singapore was ranked 13th despite soaring rents, gasoline and utility prices. It explained that this was the result of the Singapore dollar’s weakness compared to other regional currencies and offsetting them.
Japan’s ranking fell all due to the weak yen, and China’s Shenzhen (12th) and Beijing (14th) as well as Shanghai and Guangzhou were among the top 20 due to the strong yuan.
Looking closely at the results of the survey, gasoline prices jumped 37% year-on-year on average in all cities, while Beirut, Lebanon, soared 1128%. Tehran, Iran, the cheapest city to use fuel, was $0.09 per liter (about 112.92 won). Ankara, Turkey, is the cheapest city in the world for expatriates after falling five notches to 207th.
The Ukrainian war has raised the price of cooking oil by an average of 25 percent in all of the cities ranked last year. In Hong Kong, high prices continued, reaching $5.21 per cup of coffee, $3.04 per liter of gasoline and $11.51 per kilogram of tomatoes.
Hong Kong is the world’s most expensive region despite being less affected by inflation than other regions and global regions over the past year, said Asia director of Requain ECA International.
Meanwhile, ECA International analyzes consumer goods and service prices in more than 490 regions around the world through employees dispatched to more than 410 regions and compares the costs of foreign residents by referring to accommodation data. The latest report ranked 207 cities in 120 countries.
SAM KIM
ASIA JOURNAL
