Tashkent, Dushanbe and Bishkek were on the list of the world’s cheapest cities for expats. The data is given in the Cost of Living City Ranking, with a total of 227 cities on the list, where Tashkent ranked 221st.
The survey was conducted in March 2022. This year's ranking compares the prices of more than 200 commodities including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment in 227 cities spread across five continents. Mercer revamped its Cost of Living methodology this year with new items such as smartwatches, tablet computers and smartphones added to the basket and non-relevant items such as music CDs and video movie rentals removed.
Speaking about the top city, Hong Kong, is the world’s most expensive place for employees sent abroad to work
Four Switzerland cities Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern ranked second to fifth place respectively in Mercer’s Cost of Living Survey 2022.
Three other Asian Cities — Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing — made the top 10, filling 8th, 9th and 10th spots respectively.
High rankings for many Asian cities were driven by inflation and strong currencies, the management consultancy said in its report.
Apart from this, the report also showed the cheapest places for foreign employees to live which included Turkey’s Ankara, Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan and Dushanbe in Tajikistan.
The report said global issues including COVID-19, war in Ukraine, exchange rate fluctuations and widespread inflation were affecting employees’ salaries and savings, while the number of professionals relocating to Asia over the past 18 months had fallen.
Tracey Ma, Mercer’s Regional Mobility Leader for Asia Pacific, said a talent shortage in developed countries, which rely heavily on foreign workers, could become an issue exacerbated by higher living costs.
