Singapore is 10th most expensive city for expats

Mercer survey also lists S'pore as fifth most expensive in Asia-Pacific
Teh Shi Ning, Business Times 8 Jul 09;

SINGAPORE has become the 10th most expensive city in the world for expatriates, up three places from last year, says HR consultancy Mercer.

Singapore is also the fifth most expensive expat location in the Asia-Pacific, according to Mercer's 2009 cost of living survey.

Tokyo overtook Moscow as the most expensive city for expats, as the Japanese yen strengthened considerably against the US dollar.

The strong yen also lifted Osaka into second place, from 11th last year. Moscow slipped to third place but remained the most expensive European city.

The significant reshuffle of rankings is largely due to currency fluctuations and less to price movements.

For instance, the stronger US dollar makes it dearer for European-based companies to send expatriates to US cities.

It also explains why London dropped out of top 10 for the first time since 2001 - falling from third last year to 16th this year, while New York City rose to eighth, from 22nd last year.

Mercer senior researcher Nathalie Constantin-Metral said: 'Many currencies, including the euro and British pound, have weakened considerably against a strong US dollar, causing a number of European cities to plummet in the rankings.'

Middle Eastern cities rose in the rankings, mainly due to the United Arab Emirates dirham being fixed to the US dollar.

And the Chinese yuan's relatively strong performance lifted China's cities up the ranks. Beijing rose 11 spots to ninth place.

Ms Constantin-Metral said: 'The cost of expatriate programmes is heavily influenced by currency fluctuations and inflation rates.

'Now that cost containment and reduction is at the top of most company agendas, keeping track of the change in factors that dictate expatriate cost of living and housing allowances is essential.'

Mercer's survey is conducted annually to help multinational companies gauge expatriate pay packages.

The March 2009 survey covered 143 cities and more than 200 items, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment, in each city.

All cities are compared against New York, which is used as the benchmark. Currency movements are measured against the US dollar.

Singapore 10th most pricey city for expats: Survey
Melissa Tan, Straits Times 8 Jul 09;

SINGAPORE has jumped three spots to become the 10th most expensive city in the world for expatriates, according to Mercer's latest cost of living survey.

Tokyo stole the top spot from Moscow because the yen has strengthened over the survey period - March last year to this March - while London dropped to 16th from third place due to the weakening of the pound, Mercer said.

Johannesburg is at the bottom of the list of 143 cities, and is roughly one-third as costly as Tokyo. It replaced Asuncion in Paraguay, the least expensive city last year.

Mercer, the human resource consulting arm of Marsh & McLennan - an American professional services and insurance brokerage firm - noted on its website that the British pound has lost more than 26 per cent against the US dollar over the survey period.

The 'significant reshuffle of cities' can be explained more by 'important currency fluctuations and less so by price movements', it added.

However, Singapore's rise is probably not due to changes in exchange rate, because during the survey period, the Singapore dollar did not strengthen against the US dollar.

The survey data actually suggested that the country became a little cheaper, but rival cities had become even less expensive.

Each city was given a numerical score, based on how much certain goods or services cost.

The prices of more than 200 items such as food, housing, transport and entertainment were recorded.

Mercer used New York City, where it is based, as a benchmark. The company assigned it a score of 100, and calculated the scores of the other 142 cities relative to that.

Tokyo and Johannesburg scored 143.7 and 49.6 points respectively, while Singapore reached 98, down from last year's score of 111.3, reflecting that the country has become relatively less expensive.