The World’s 30 Most Expensive Cities For Expats

South Sudan’s capital of Juba is now the most expensive city in the world for expat workers as years of political and civil unrest undermine the economy.

Although oil rich, the world’s newest country that was born in 2013, has been dogged by tribal rivalries that threaten to destabilise the government.

The capital is considered expensive as luxuries and every day goods desired by expats have to be jetted in and the local currency is rated as weak against the US dollar.

The story is similar in the world’s second most expensive expat city – Luanda, Angola.

Going through the regions, outside Africa the most expensive cities are:

• North America – New York, USA. The city that never sleeps has risen19 places to 20^th in the table on the back of the strengthening US dollar.
• South America – Buenos Aires, Argentina, is 40^th through government mismanagement of the peso, defaults on foreign debts and raging inflation
• Europe – Zurich takes top spot here and third globally thanks to decoupling the Swiss Franc from the euro and seeing the value skyrocket. Many European cities have dropped down the table because of the weakening euro against the US dollar and Sterling
• Middle East – Tel Aviv holds 24^th place globally mainly due to Israel pegging the shekel to the US dollar.
• Asia Pacific – Shanghai is the first Chinese city to head the region for expats. Although cheap goods are plentiful in China, the index compares international brands, which are either unavailable or pricier in the city.