HONG KONG HAS BEEN KNOCKED OFF

its top spot as the most expensive city in the world for expats. But by whom? Singapore? New York? Sydney? Turns out Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, now takes the throne, according to consultancy firm Mercer’s Cost of Living Survey. The city of one million residents, ranked second last year, has shot to the top of the list due to high inflation, which has pushed up the price of goods and services. Unfortunately, despite the country’s rich natural gas reserves, much of the population has been plunged into poverty due to a long-running economic crisis. Despite this, in May president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, aka the dictator who built a giant golden statue of himself on a horse in 2015, collects obscure Guinness World Records and claims his country is Covid 19-free, pledged to turn the capital into “one of the most prosperous cities in the world”. We’re not buying it.