The world’s most expensive cities for 2022

The company calculates the list based on several factors, including the average price of household staples like milk and cooking oil, rent, utilities, public transit and the strength of the local currency.

This is the third year in a row that Hong Kong has claimed the dubious honor of being the world’s priciest city on the ECA index. The index specifically focuses on foreign workers and expats in their rankings.

Asia takes the prize

Some regulators include the Middle East in Asia. In that case, Tel Aviv — which is in sixth place — also counts toward Asia’s total and would give it six out of 10 spots.

Asia also claims the honor of being home to the fastest-rising city on the overall list. That would be Colombo, Sri Lanka’s main metropolis, which jumped 23 places from 162 to 149.

Lee Quane, ECA’s regional director for Asia, explained the reasoning for mainland China’s growing presence on the index.

“The majority of the mainland Chinese cities in our rankings have higher rates of inflation than we are used to seeing, but they are still typically lower than elsewhere in Asia,” Quane said in a statement. “Therefore, the main reason for their rise in the rankings has been the continued strength of the Chinese yuan against other major currencies.”

Lower down the list

So, which cities are lower ranked than in previous years?

Paris, which has topped the ECA list in the past, dropped out of the top 30. Madrid, Rome and Brussels all fell as well.

“Nearly every major Eurozone city saw a drop in the rankings this year as the euro performed worse in the last 12 months than the US dollar and British pound,” Quane explains.

Europe’s most expensive city is Geneva, Switzerland, which was in third place after Hong Kong and New York City. Switzerland uses the Swiss franc instead of…