The capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, and the southern port city of Karachi, were both selected to Mercer’s list of the least expensive cities in the world.
Cost of Living Index has Hong Kong at the top once more. After that comes Singapore, which moved up six spots from last year and knocked Zurich down to third place. Havana, which fell 83 places due in part to severe currency devaluations midway through last year, and two cities in Pakistan — Karachi and Islamabad — are the least costly in the ranking, the business stated on its blog.
Karachi, Islamabad and other cities have seen changes in ranking
It predicted that the major forces that moulded the global economy in 2022 would carry over into 2023. Many economies are still reeling from the shocks caused by the deepening of the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the introduction of more contagious COVID-19 versions more than a year ago.
In contrast to previous year, when four of the top 10 most costly cities for international assignees were in Asia, this year only two are. Hong Kong comes in at number one, followed closely by Singapore at number two. The two cheapest cities in the world, Karachi (226) and Islamabad (227), are both in Asia.
Four Swiss cities plus the Danish capital of Copenhagen make up Europe’s representation in the world’s top five. London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Prague, and Helsinki are some of the other most expensive cities in the region. Prague jumped 27 places in the global list from the previous year.
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