EuroCost International’s expatriate cost of living survey for 2013 ranked Beirut in 14th place globally, unchanged from the preceding year and compared to 22nd place in 2011, 13th place in 2010 and 19th place in 2009, Byblos Bank ‘Lebanon This Week’ reported.
Beirut remained the most expensive city in the Middle East for expatriate cost of living in the 2013 survey, unchanged since the 2010 survey.
The survey compares expatriate living costs in major locations worldwide, including rent costs but excluding healthcare and education costs. The rankings are based on prices collected in June 2013 and updated at August exchange rates.
Beirut was considered to be more expensive than Guangzhou in China, Copenhagen in Denmark and Lausanne in Switzerland, and less expensive than Zurich, Seoul in South Korea and Oslo in Norway.
Beirut was the only city from the Middle East among the 20 most expensive cities globally in terms of expatriate cost of living, while Tel Aviv was the second most expensive Middle Eastern city and ranked in 24th place worldwide.
The rankings of 12 cities increased, eight declined and four remained unchanged among the 30 most expensive cities in the world, while six new cities joined the top 30 in the new survey.
EuroCost International attributed the large changes in rankings to exchange rate fluctuations. Moscow overtook Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world for expatriates in 2013. EuroCost International specializes in cost of living services for expatriates in over 250 locations worldwide.
Source: ILoubnan