Mumbai costliest Indian city, Kolkata cheapest: Mercer 2022 survey
Compared to other major cities in the Asia-Pacific like Beijing and Shanghai, Indian cities have a lower cost of living for expats, making it a cost-efficient destination for global MNCs
Mumbai is the most expensive city in India in terms of both living expenses and accommodation costs, according to Mercer’s 2022 Cost of Living survey. It was ranked 127 in the survey conducted in 227 cities across the world.
Other Indian cities that figured in the survey were New Delhi (155), Chennai (177), Bengaluru (178), Hyderabad (192), and Pune (201), with Kolkata at rank 203 being the least expensive Indian city in the ranking.
The annual survey was conducted in March 2022. This year’s ranking compared the prices of more than 200 commodities, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment in 227 cities spread across five continents. Mercer revamped its Cost-of-Living methodology this year with new items such as smartwatches, tablet computers and smartphones added to the basket and non-relevant items such as music CDs and video movie rentals removed, reports The Economic Times.
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Measuring daily costs
The study highlighted elements that contribute to daily costs; among the assessed Indian cities, Kolkata has the lowest cost of daily necessities such as milk, breads, vegetables, etc., while Mumbai and New Delhi have the highest costs. In terms of energy, phone costs, etc, the cost of home utilities is highest in Mumbai and lowest in Chennai and Hyderabad. Watching a movie in Mumbai is most expensive whereas Hyderabad is the cheapest.
“Global supply chains for necessities have been disrupted as a result of Covid-19-related volatility, which has been exacerbated by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. As a result of this uncertainty, organisations have been forced to re-evaluate their global mobility initiatives with a focus on the well-being of their expatriate employees, balanced with economics, along with significantly growing inflation in the majority of countries around the world,” The Economic Times quoted Rahul Sharma, India mobility leader, Mercer.
The survey found that Hyderabad had the cheapest housing of all the places examined in India. However, it is more expensive than Pune and Kolkata when both cost of living and housing are taken into account. Among other Indian cities, Mumbai has some of the most expensive rentals, followed by New Delhi and Bengaluru. The other Indian cities in the ranking (Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Kolkata) have accommodation costs that are over 50 per cent lesser than those of Mumbai.
Cost-efficient for MNCs
The survey also found that Mumbai, the financial hub of India, is a popular place for multinational corporations to establish operations. Organisations are, however, also considering other low-cost areas like Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune due to the greater cost of living in Mumbai.
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Compared to other major cities in the Asia-Pacific region, including Beijing, Shanghai and Manilla, Indian cities have a lower cost of living and expat accommodation, making it a cost-efficient destination for global MNCs to set up operations overseas.
Four out of the 10 most expensive cities to live in for expats are in Asia, including the most expensive city in the world – Hong Kong (ranked 1). Singapore (8), Tokyo (9) and Beijing (10) are all in the top 10.
