Bucharest drops nine positions among most expensive cities for expats to 181

Bucharest has fallen nine positions since 2016 on the most expensive cities rank for expats to 181, Luanda being the most expensive city, according to a study published on Wednesday by the consultancy firm Mercer.

Asian cities dominate the ranking of the most expensive cities for expats, occupying five of the first 10 positions. On the first place there is Angola, Luanda, due to the high costs of security goods and services, followed by Hong Kong, Tokyo, Zurich, Singapore, Seul, Geneva, Shanghai, New York and Bern. On the other hand, the cheapest cities for expats are Skopje (207), Biskek, capital of Kyrghyztan (208) and Tunis (209).

“Although many Asian cities remain one of the most expansive for expats, the big financial centers such as Honk Kong and Singapore continue to attract talented people and remain the main choices for relocation,” said Mario Ferraro, director of global mobility for Asia, Middle East and Africa at Mercer.

In the Central and Eastern Europe, some cities, including Prague (132) and Budapest (176) drops some positions in the ranking due to the depreciation of local currencies against the USD dollar, while Minsk and Kiev climbed four and 13 places despite the relative stable cost in these locations. The most expensive cities for expats in this region are Moscow, (14), Sankt Petersburg (36), Riga (126), Prague (132) and Istanbul (142). Bucharest is placed behind Warsaw, but ahead of Sofia (184) or Belgrad (198).

The study uses the data base compared with New York and includes over 400 cities on five continents that compares prices based on the costs of over 200 products and services in each city.