The corporate calculates the listing based mostly on a number of elements, together with the typical value of family staples like milk and cooking oil, lease, utilities, public transportation, and the energy of the native forex.
It’s the third consecutive yr that Hong Kong has claimed the doubtful honor of being the world’s costliest metropolis in response to the ECA index. The index focuses particularly on international staff and expats of their rankings.
Asia wins the prize
Some regulators embody the Center East in Asia. On this case, Tel Aviv – which sits in sixth place – additionally counts in the direction of Asia’s whole and would give it six locations out of 10.
Asia additionally claims the consideration of internet hosting the quickest rising metropolis on the worldwide listing. That may be Colombo, Sri Lanka’s predominant metropolis, which jumped 23 locations from 162 to 149.
Lee Quane, ECA’s Regional Director for Asia, defined the explanations for mainland China’s rising presence within the index.
“Nearly all of mainland Chinese language cities in our rankings have larger inflation charges than we’re used to, however they’re nonetheless usually decrease than elsewhere in Asia,” Quane stated in an announcement. “Subsequently, the primary cause for his or her rise within the rankings has been the continued energy of the Chinese language Yuan towards different main currencies.”
Hong Kong’s aggressive and cramped housing market contributed to its “costliest” rating.
Li Zhihua/China Press Service/Getty Photographs
Additional down the listing
So, which cities are ranked decrease than in earlier years?
Paris, which topped the ECA listing previously, dropped out of the highest 30. Madrid, Rome and Brussels additionally fell.
“Virtually all main cities within the Eurozone have seen their rankings drop this yr, with the Euro performing worse over the previous 12 months than the US Greenback and the British Pound,” says Quane.
The costliest metropolis in Europe is Geneva, Switzerland, which ranks third after Hong Kong and New York. Switzerland makes use of the Swiss franc as an alternative of the euro.
The coronavirus pandemic has in fact performed a task in world provide chains and different financial elements.
Different rankings
ECA Worldwide just isn’t the one firm to rank the world’s cities based mostly on economic system.
Hong Kong was in fifth place, behind Zurich. In 2020, Hong Kong, Zurich and Paris shared the primary designation.
Each lists use the costs of on a regular basis objects like groceries and gasoline to find out their rating. Nevertheless, EIU pegs its numbers to the US greenback, so economies that do the identical – like Hong Kong, for instance – usually tend to rank properly.
Anyway, whatever the order during which cities are listed in several indexes, it’s clear that Asian, European and North American cities are far more costly to reside in than their counterparts in Africa and South America. ‘South America.

New York was the one North American metropolis to position within the high ten.
Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Photographs
The costliest cities on the earth
1. Hong Kong
2. New York
3. Geneva
4. London
5.Tokyo
6. Tel Aviv
7. Zürich
8. Shanghai
9. Guangzhou
10. Seoul
CNN’s Maureen O’Hare contributed reporting.