Strong currencies may have pushed up the cost of living for expatriates assigned to major Asian locations, but Indian cities are still among the cheapest places globally for an overseas assignee, a survey said.
The seven Indian cities — New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata — all witnessed a fall in their global ranks, making them cheaper to live in for expatriates, according to the survey by Hong Kong-based solution provider for HR professionals, ECA International.
New Delhi and Mumbai have dropped 21 and 27 positions to 217 and 219 ranks, respectively, in the global ranking of 370 countries. While Hyderabad has dropped 14 positions to 211 in this year’s survey, as against the March 2008 survey carried out by the firm.
Chennai is at the 223rd position as against 207th place in the previous survey, while Bangalore has fallen to 224 (218 last year), Pune at 227 (217 previously) followed by Kolkata at 229 (216 last year).
Out of the Indian locations, New Delhi is the most expensive for expats, while Kolkata is the cheapest.
However, Japanese and Chinese locations dominate Asia’s list of most expensive cities, while in global ranking also four Japanese cities are among top five, the survey revealed.
The most expensive city globally for expats is Luanda, the capital city of Angola, followed by four Japanese cities — Tokyo, Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe.
“The strengthening of Asian currencies is the dominant factor contributing to the region being more expensive for visitors than it was 12 months ago. In that period, the yuan had continued to strengthen while the yen had appreciated by almost 8 per cent against the US dollar,” said ECA International Regional Director (Asia) Lee Quane.
“Many Western currencies, including sterling, the euro and the Swiss franc, have weakened. As a result, people coming from these economies into Asia will notice a considerable difference in costs compared with 12 months ago,” Quane added.
ECA conducts Cost of Living Surveys at least every six months comparing a basket of consumer goods and services commonly purchased by expatriates in over 370 locations worldwide.
The survey pointed out that currency fluctuation has played a major role in cost of living ranking movements over the last year, but falling inflation in many countries and, in particular, the collapse of petrol prices from the record highs of last year, has also had an impact.
While price inflation has slowed down in many Asian cities compared with 12 months ago, it has fallen more dramatically in many Western countries where growth has been lower.
“Whereas Asian economies cushioned their citizens against rising fuel and food costs in 2008 through subsidies and price controls, Western governments did not. Consequently, the effect of lower prices is being felt more in the West than in many parts of Asia,” Quane said
The Cost of Living survey is topped by Japan’s Tokyo as the costliest city for expats in Asia followed by other Japanese cities — Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe at the second, third and fourth ranks.
China’s Beijing (5th), Shanghai (6th) and Hong Kong (7th), Shenzhen (8th), Guangzhou (9th) and Singapore (10) are the other cities among the 10 costliest places in Asia.
Among the Asian rankings, Indian cities New Delhi and Mumbai occupy 41th and 43rd positions while Chennai comes at 44th place followed by Bangalore (45), Hyderabad (46), Pune (47) and Kolkata (49).
Interestingly, Kolkata (49) is among the three cities with the least cost of living among top 50 Asian cities, along with the Pakistan’s capital Islamabad (50) and Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar (51).
