According to a global consulting firm's cost of living survey released on Wednesday, Mumbai is the most expensive Indian city for expatriates. Hong Kong topped the list as the world's costliest city to live, while Mumbai has moved up two spots to be listed at 55.

Mumbai is ranked higher than the famous cities like Melbourne (58), Frankfurt (68), Buenos Aires (76), Stockholm (89) and Atlanta (95). New Delhi is ranked 103, Bengaluru is at number 170, Chennai at 144 and Kolkata stands at 182. The 2018 Cost of Living Survey by Mercer, a New York-based global consulting leader in advancing health, wealth and careers, said "While cities such as Melbourne and Buenos Aires have fallen in their rankings, Mumbai's jump in ranking is also attributable to continued surge in prices of food, alcohol and domestic supplies."

"Costs of sporting, leisure-related activities have also played a role in rising prices, followed in part by transportation costs, which includes taxi fares and cost of registration and road taxes. Real estate prices in Mumbai remain among the highest in the world for residential purposes," the survey noted.
Mercer's 2018 survey ranked 209 cities across five continents by measuring the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location including housing, transportation, food, and clothing.

Hong Kong was found to be the world's costliest city to live in, surpassing Angola's capital Luanda which came sixth. Zurich (3) and Bern (10) were the only two European cities to be among the top 10 list of most expensive cities.

The top 10 was dominated by Asian financial hubs like Tokyo figuring at second place, Singapore at fourth, Seoul at fifth, Shanghai at seventh and Beijing at ninth place. European and African cities were among the priciest cities for employees apart from Asia.

This Mercer's survey is widely recognised as being one of the world's most comprehensive surveys and is designed to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation strategies for their expatriate employees. New York City is used as the base city for all comparisons, and currency movements are measured against the US dollar.