Kyiv--Expensive!!

Here's part of the Kyiv Post article on the Mercer survey I mention in the post preceding this one.

Rising living costs place Kyiv high on list of expensive cities

by Yulianna Vilkos, Kyiv Post Staff Writer

Jun 28 2006, 04:34

Ukraine’s capital ranks as the 21st most expensive place to live in the world out of 144 cities surveyed, according to an annual survey conducted by Mercer Human Resources Consulting

According to an annual survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Kyiv ranks as the 21st most expensive city to live in out of a list of 144 major world cities surveyed.

Ukraine’s capital ranks as one of the 50 most expensive places to live in the world, coming in 21st on a list of 144 cities surveyed by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a global leader for human resources and related financial advice.

In Mercer’s annual Worldwide Cost of Living survey, Kyiv has moved up from 54th to 21st place compared with last year’s survey, sharing its position with Rome and Vienna.

With a score of 89.8, Kyiv is just around 10 points away from New York, which represented the survey’s base city at 100 points. The Ukrainian capital was separated by just a little over 30 points from Moscow, which this year replaced Tokyo as the world’s most expensive city, with a score of 123.9, according to Mercer’s ranking.

Kyiv’s dramatic rise to the top of the international list is mainly due to the appreciation of the local currency, the hryvnia, against the U.S. dollar, and “general price increases,” Mercer’s press release said. Many other Eastern European cities, on the contrary, have dropped sharply in the ranking due to the devaluation of local currencies against the dollar, the release stated. For example, Prague has fallen 22 places to 50th place in the ranking.

Mercer’s survey measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each city, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment, and is aimed at helping multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.