ASIA, 22/6/2021 – As the world continues to recover from Covid-19, Mercer’s annual 2021 Cost of Living survey saw Asia dominating the world’s most expensive city rankings, despite significant shifts. Hong Kong lost top spot – a position it held for the past three years – to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, now the costliest city for international employees, both in Asia and globally. Tokyo, Japan now ranked fourth was leapfrogged by Beirut, Lebanon which climbed 42 positions to third, as a result of a severe and extensive economic depression due to escalation of several crises — the country’s largest financial crisis, COVID-19 and the Port of Beirut explosion in 2020.
More than half of the top 10 most expensive cities are located in Asia. Shanghai and Beijing ranked sixth and ninth respectively, up one place from last year, while Singapore moved from fifth place to seventh. Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer’s most costly cities for international employees are Zurich (5), Geneva (8) and Bern (10).
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