The Most Expensive City in the World…by Simon Black
The most expensive city in the world is not in the North America, or Europe, or even the Middle East… it’s in Africa. According to an annual cost of living survey that is sponsored by international HR consulting firm Mercer, the most expensive city in the world is Luanda, Angola. In case you’re scrambling for an atlas right now, Angola is an oil rich country on southern Africa’s Atlantic coast. It was a Portuguese territory from the 1500s until independence in 1975, at which point it plunged into a decades-long civil war between communist and anti-communist factions. Needless to say, Angola was one of those unfortunate countries where the United States and Soviet Union duked it out, supplying their respective sides with money and munitions despite a UN prohibition against arms deals in the country. When the war finally ended in 2002, the Angolan economy went bananas. Large multinationals had already been drilling and producing in Angola’s rich offshore blocks… but once peace was finally brokered, the economy really blossomed. Today, Angola is a nation of significant economic contrast – though the government is growing rich from oil revenue, the majority of locals live in poverty on less than $1/day. For expats, though, costs are astronomical: Three-star hotel rooms start at $750/night, apartments run $7,000/month, a silly cheeseburger can cost $30 or more, a haircut will set you back $150. This is why Luanda tops the Mercer ratings. Also making an appearance in the Mercer survey’s top 10 are fellow African cities of N’Djamena, Chad and Libreville, Gabon, each of which is a costlier place for expats to live than London, Zurich, Vancouver, or New York. This sort of price disparity is not unusual in Africa. Key cities are often severely limited in supply of expat-quality products and services… there might be only one hotel in the city with four walls and a ceiling, running water, and a mattress devoid of insects. July 14, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Economic Policy Journal
|
