São Paulo: the 10th most expensive city in the world
(BDCi) — São Paulo jumped over London, Paris and New York to become the tenth most expensive city in the world. Today, living in São Paulo is more expensive than in most European and American cities, according to a recent study by Mercer Consulting, The study is based on the costs that multinational companies need to spend to maintain a foreign worker in the city.
The city of São Paulo climbed 11 places to the 10th spot on the list thanks in part to the Brazilian currency’s (Real) strength against the weakened U.S. dollar. In fact, the Brazilian city is now the most expensive place to immigrate to in both North and South America. It had one of the biggest jumps among the 214 cities evaluated.
In the United States, New York remains the most expensive city, but it dropped five places on the international list (ranking 32nd worldwide), as rental prices there continue to slip. Los Angeles, the second most expensive U.S. city, fell 22 places to 77th place.
Rio de Janeiro also rose in the rankings, moving from the 29th most expensive city in the world in 2010 to 12th this year.
The world’s most expensive city to live as an expatriate is Luanda, Angola on the African continent. (Ironically, Luanda’s original name was São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, and the language spoken there is Portuguese.) Rounding out the top 5 most expensive cities were: Tokyo, N’Djamena (Chad), Moscow, and Geneva.
The study also highlights the least expensive cities to live. In 2011, Managua (Nicaragua), La Paz (Bolivia), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan were the top 5 least expensive cities.
By: Adrianna Lobo Souce: CNN & O Estado de São Paulo July 14, 2011
12:16 p.m. PDT