YeinJee's Asian Journal » Cost of Living

Tokyo is world’s most expensive city (2009)

Yein Jee — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:06:12 +0000

Tokyo has knocked Moscow off the top spot as the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer.

Currency fluctuation is the major factor for the ups and downs; London, Seoul, and Sydney etc. are dropped significantly because of weakened currency.

10 most expensive cities in 2009 [2008 ranking in brackets]

1. Tokyo, Japan (2)
2. Osaka, Japan (11)
3. Moscow, Russia (1)
4. Geneva, Switzerland (8)
5. Hong Kong, China (6)
6. Zürich, Switzerland (9)
7. Copenhagen, Denmark (7)
8. New York City, USA (22)
9. Beijing, China (20)
10. Singapore (13)

Tokyo is world’s most expensive city (2009) from YeinJee's Asian Journal

100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note

Yein Jee — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:25:35 +0000

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is issuing a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar banknote (~USD33) as the country’s hyperinflation continues to worsen…

The 100,000,000,000,000 dollar note (Image via Chinanews (Cn))

100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Moscow is world’s most expensive city (2008)

Yein Jee — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:58:03 +0000

Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the third consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer.

Mercer’s survey is arguably the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

The survery covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

Top 10 most expensive cities in 2008

Moscow (Russia), Tokyo (Japan), London (UK), Oslo (Norway), Seoul (South Korea), Hong Kong (China), Copenhagen (Denmark), Geneva (Switzerland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Milan (Italy).

Surprisingly US have only one city in the top 50 (New York at 22nd)… and Canada don’t even make it into top 50. Perhaps we should migrate to that region instead lol.

Moscow is world’s most expensive city (2008) from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Yein Jee — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:15:27 +0000

USD1 = 16,500 Vietnamese Dong, which literally makes me a millionaire in during my Vietnam visit (well, who isn’t?)… it’s actually quite a pain though, for foreign travellers who are slow in counting lol.

Vietnamese Dong (đồng), if not mistaken, is the second least valued currency behind Zimbabwean dollars. The face value of Dongs started rising since late 80s because of inflation; in 1985 the largest banknote was 500, but now 500,000.

Despite the high inflation rate, Vietnam’s economic growth is quite decent over the time span… most Vietnamese are probably living better now as compared to a decade or two ago.

Who wants to be a millionaire? from YeinJee's Asian Journal