Mumbai is India’s costliest city for expatriates: Mercer survey

MUMBAI:MUMBAI continues to be the most expensive city for expatriates in India, according to a global consulting firm Mercer’s cost of living survey.

The 2018 survey ranked 209 cities across five continents and measured the comparative costs of more than 200 items in each location.

Mumbai’s jump in ranking is attributed to continued surge in prices of food, alcohol and domestic supplies.

Mumbai is ranked 55 and is slated to be more expensive than cities like Melbourne (58), Frankfurt (68) and Buenos Aires (76). Hong Kong leads the pack as the world’s costliest city.

“Real estate prices in Mumbai remain among the highest in the world for residential purposes,” said the report.

“Prices of expatriate food items such as butter, meat and poultry, as well as premium farm produce have increased significantly. Costs of sporting, leisure-related activities have also led to rising prices,” said the report.

Mumbai is followed by New Delhi and Chennai at 103 and 144, respectively.

According to Mercer’s International Policies and Practices Report on India, 93% of companies compensate their expatriate employees through a cost of

Hong Kong living allowance.

“This increase in prices of goods in our cities, viewed along with currency exchange rate, has a direct impact on the Indian assignee compensation, when using a balance sheet approach, making overseas assignment costs sometimes greater and sometimes smaller,” said Padma Ramanathan, India Practice Leader, Global Mobility at Mercer.