The most expensive city in the world for foreigners is Luanda, the capital of Angola. According to ECA, this is because most goods typically purchased by foreigners are hard to come by and therefore very expensive.
Tokyo, which ranked 13th in last year's ranking, rose to 2nd place this year due to the strengthening of the yen. The top ten includes three more Japanese cities - Yokohama, Nagoya, and Kobe.
The cheapest city in the world is Maseru, the capital of the African country Lesotho.
The study compares the cost of a basket of 125 goods and services typically purchased by foreign specialists. This basket does not include the cost of housing, school education, and cars, expenses which, according to ECA, are usually covered by the employer.
As Gazeta.Ru notes, the findings of ECA International will be of interest primarily to large multinational companies that send their employees to work abroad and calculate the amount of travel allowances and salaries based on the actual living and working conditions in a particular location.