S'pore is Asia's 9th most expensive location for expats

By Romesh Navaratnarajah:

Singapore has fallen three spots to the 36th most expensive location in the world for expatriates, according to the latest report on cost of living by human resources consultants ECA International. Within Asia, the city-state is ranked 9th, one spot higher than Hong Kong. While the Singapore dollar has strengthened, prices of goods and services in the country increased 1.6 percent over the year, down from the six percent growth in 2012. The study covers prices of items like groceries, clothing, electrical goods and meals out. Certain living costs such as accommodation rental, utilities charges, car purchases and school fees are not included in the survey. Globally, Oslo trumped Tokyo (now down to sixth place) as the costliest city for international assignees. The Norwegian capital is followed by Luanda (Angola), Stavanger (Norway), Juba (South Sudan) and Moscow (Russia). As for Singapore, "the pace of inflation in Singapore has slowed considerably compared with a year ago, and is at one of the lowest levels in the region and globally", noted Lee Quane, ECA's regional director, Asia. "However, many multinational companies sending staff into Singapore won't see as big a drop in costs as this lower rate of inflation might indicate. With the dollar strengthening over the same period against many major currencies, the impact of these price falls has been tempered."

Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@allproperty.com.sg

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