Harare is Number One!

Zimbabwe's capital Harare ranks as the world's most expensive city for expatriates due largely to the country's soaring inflation, and displacing Oslo and Tokyo from the top slots, a human resources firm said on Tuesday. "Zimbabwe had massive inflation of 1 700%," Lee Quane, general manager of ECA International, told Reuters. "Although the currency has depreciated, there was a huge increase in the cost of living for Harare," he said. Harare was the 57th most expensive city for expatriates in the 2005 survey.

The world's 10 most expensive cities for expatriates (City; Country (position in 2005 survey))

1. Harare Zimbabwe (57)
2. Luanda Angola (2)
3. Oslo Norway (1)
4. Moscow Russia (8)
5. Kinshasa Democratic Republic of Congo (15)
6. Stavanger Norway (5)
7. Copenhagen Denmark (7)
8. Seoul South Korea (10)
9. Libreville Gabon (12)
10. Tokyo Japan (3)
From News24 (SA), 5 December