Of cities and living
Rajeshwari Sharma -
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 1:43 PM
May be now we have some explanation to why friends, acquaintances and some colleagues including me are complaining about rising bills more than folks in Mumbai. The only plausible reason that came to my mind was the parwaah nahi attitude of Mumbai professionals. People in Mumbai whine less, I told myself.
But that’s not the case it seems. Living in New Delhi has actually become costlier than ever. According to the latest Cost of Living study for cities around the world by global human resource consulting firm Mercer all cities in India rose in the cost of living ranking, with New Delhi climbing 13 places to 55th place from 68th a year ago while Mumbai went up four places to reach 48 from 52nd position in the same period as India posted a GDP growth rate of 9.2% in 2007. The study says although India has experienced relatively high inflation, this has increased at similar pace to New York and has therefore had a reduced impact on its cities’ rise in the rankings.
In the overall global ranking, Moscow continues to be the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the third consecutive year. Tokyo occupies the second spot climbing two places since last year, whereas London drops one place to rank third. Oslo climbs six places to fourth place and is followed by Seoul for the fifth position. Asuncion, the capital city of Paraguay, is the least expensive in the ranking for the sixth time. I think it would be a good idea to find a job in Asuncion. What do you say? Plus, the city spread along the Paraguay River is very picturesque.