London no longer in world’s top 50 most expensive cities for high-flyers

The weakness of sterling means that London is now on a par with Budapest and Warsaw when it comes to living costs for international executives who are being posted abroad.

The extreme currency movements of the past couple of years have pushed other countries down this dubious ranking, too:

“These movements demonstrate the impact of exchange rates on cost of living and salaries for international assignees,” says Lee Quane, Regional Director – Asia, ECA International. “Three years ago, the weakness of the yen pushed Tokyo out of our global top ten, but as the currency has strengthened, the cost of living for international assignees has risen. This, coupled with Luanda’s fall from the number one spot due to the depreciation of the kwanza as its unofficial peg against the US dollar was loosened, means Tokyo now sits at the top of the ranking.”

Clearly, we’re not talking frugal living here. These are living costs for a busy Jones-chasing exec who’s going places, not a frugalist cutting his or her cloth on the fringes.

Hence why the Angolan capital makes the top three in the full list:

Rank 2010	Location	Rank 2009
1	Tokyo	2
2	Oslo	8
3	Luanda	1
4	Nagoya	3
5	Yokohama	4
6	Stavanger	14
7	Kobe	6
8	Copenhagen	7
9	Geneva	9
10	Zurich	10
11	Bern	13
12	Basel	11
13	Libreville	12
14	Helsinki	15
15	Moscow	29
16	Paris	16
17	Abidjan	17
18	Abuja	19
19	Tel Aviv	24
20	Seoul	102
21	Stockholm	80
22	Jerusalem	27
23	Kinshasa	20
24	Vienna	23
25	Brussels	35
26	Berlin	22
27	Canberra	149
28	Rio de Janeiro	132
29	Manhattan	18
30	Sydney	150
31	Baku	21
32	Strasbourg	31
33	Gothenburg	99
34	Hong Kong	30
35	The Hague	36
36	Munich	34
37	Melbourne	163
38	Luxembourg	40
39	Rome	38
40	Brisbane	169
41	Honolulu	25
42	Lyon	44
43	Perth	168
44	Antwerp	43
45	Adelaide	172
46	Shanghai	28
47	Cameroon	50
48	New York	32
49	Dusseldorf	41
50	Athens	49

(Source: ECA International)

Tagged as: currency, living costs