To live in Mumbai is expensive than Dallas, Munich and Frankfurt

If you’re staying in Mumbai, it’s time to feel motivated in your pocket. Well, as per Mercer's Cost of Living Survey 2015, Mumbai has crawled up 66 places to become the 74^th most expensive city in the world, the first in India.

As per a news report in The Economic Times, Luanda, the capital of Angola, has been rated the world's costliest city to live in, for the third consecutive year by Mercer's Cost of Living Survey 2015. Hong Kong (2), Zurich (3), Singapore (4) and Geneva (5) top the list of most expensive cities for expatriates. Asian cities dominate the top 10 costliest cities rankings along with major cities in Switzerland in the report.

The city, says the report, has witnessed higher inflation over the last one year as compared to other metros, higher cost of fuel, transportation, increased prices of food items, home services and rentals, impacting the overall cost of living. Mumbai is followed by New Delhi (132) and Chennai (157), which rose in the ranking by 25 and 28 spots, respectively. Bangalore (183) and Kolkata (193), the least expensive Indian cities, climbed in the ranking, as well.

Mumbai is ranked higher and more expensive than cities like Dallas (77), Munich (87), Luxembourg (94), Frankfurt (98) and Vancouver (119) of the world. The world's least expensive cities for expatriates, according to Mercer's survey, are Bishkek (207), Windhoek (206), and Karachi (205).

"With a large number of Indian multinational organisations progressively expanding their footprint abroad, 85 per cent of multinationals are expecting expatriate assignments to increase over the next two years to address business needs. Indian companies have been bullish on sending employees abroad," said Ruchika Pal, India Practice Leader, Global Mobility at Mercer in a release.

"Organisations continue to recognise the importance of international assignees. What they need to evaluate even more closely is the impact of political and economic factors such as currency stability, inflation, and political instability, to balance cost versus competitiveness of the expatriate's compensation package," added Ms. Pal.

Across continents, countries with the highest expected increase in the number of Indian international assignto liees are South Africa, UAE, UK and USA.

The survey includes 207 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. Currency fluctuations and the impact of inflation on goods and services have influenced the cost of expatriate programs as well as the city rankings.

(Image: Wikimedia)