Islamabad, Karachi among least expensive cities of the world

ISLAMABAD: The new cost of living survey of 2019 is out and according to the list Hong Kong is the world’s most expensive city for expats to live in, for the second consecutive year, international media reported on Thursday.

According to the Mercer survey, the city that made to the second position is Tokyo, Japan, followed by Singapore, Seoul in South Korea, Zurich in Switzerland, Shanghai in China, Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, Beijing in China, New York in USA and Shenzhen in China.

Four out of the top 10 cities are from China. While many cities from Europe did feature on the list, the top 10 were dominated by Asian cities. Eight of the top 10 cities in the list are from Asia, up from 6 entries in 2018.

Islamabad and Karachi also featured on the list. Islamabad is the costliest city of Pakistan which is ranked at 203 on the world list followed by Karachi on 213 number. But they are least expensive cities of the world as they are ranked on the end of the list of 209 cities.

Metro cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai too featured on the list. While Mumbai is India’s costliest city; coming in at number 67 and New Delhi came in at the 118th position.

The rankings are calculated by looking at 209 cities around the world and measuring the cost of more than 200 items in each location. This includes housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.