Bucharest jumps 5 places in world’s top expensive cities for expats but remains among cheapest in Europe

Bucharest jumped five places in world’s rankings of the most expensive cities for expats, up to 176^th place, but remains among the cheapest Capital cities in Europe, according to a survey carried out by advisory firm Mercer, cited by BBC.

In last year’s study, Bucharest ranked 181^st in the world.

This year, Bucharest is considered cheaper than most European Capital cities including Athens (112), Bratislava (113), Budapest (151), Warsaw (154) and even Sofia (175), but is more expensive than Belgrade (181).

The study examines the cost of 200 items in each location, including accommodation, transport, clothes, food and entertainment, comparing prices such as a cinema ticket, a pair of jeans, a liter of water, a cup of coffee, petrol and milk.

Mercer defines expatriates, also called assignees, as employees of an organisation who are assigned to work in a different country than her or his original country of employment for a definite period of time.

In this year’s rankings, Hong Kong is back in top spot as the most expensive city to live in the world as an expat.

Tokyo is the second most expensive city followed by Zurich and Singapore, with Seoul in fifth. This means that four out of five of the world’s most expensive cities for expatriates are now in Asia, according to the survey.