MIDA e-News

KL, which is ranked 96th out of 143 cities, is among the lower cost cities under Mercer's Cost of Living 2009 survey, released recently.

Among Asean cities, Singapore which is the 10 th most expensive city in the world, emerged as the highest cost city. Other Asean cities with a higher cost of living than Malaysia are Vietnam's Hanoi and Ho Chih Minh, which globally are placed at 58th and 69th respectively.

Tokyo topped the list as the most expensive city while the other cities rated among the world's top ten most expensive cities are Osaka, Moscow, Geneva, Hong Kong, Zurich, Copenhagen, New York and Bejing.

Mercer's Cost of Living 2009 survey measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

The global survey, being the most comprehensive cost of living survey, has been used as a reference by multinational corporations (MNCs) and governments to decide on a package of compensation allowance for their expatriate employees in the various cities around the world.

The Mercer's survey used New York as the base city and currency movements are measured against the US dollar.

The survey which covered from March 2008 to March 2009 saw the effects of the economic crisis, which brought about significant fluctuations in many of the world's currencies, that in turn had a substantial impact on this year's ranking, Mercer Senior Researcher Nathalie Constantin- Metral said.

Adapted from New Straits Times 10 July 2009 and Mercer website