Nairobi Ranked 145 Most Expensive City in Globally: Mercer

Nairobi, Kenya’s capital improved 47 places to become the world’s 145th most expensive city in 2021, according to a Mercer Cost of Living report.

This is the first drop in three years.

This was the best position in seven years for Nairobi, which had last year ranked 95 out of the 209 cities surveyed.

“The latest data show few significant price variances resulting from the pandemic as various measures were adopted by governments worldwide, such as lowering or refraining from collecting VAT for a period of time,” said the report.

Mercer’s ranking is based on changes of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

Mercer’s biannual Cost of Living survey helps employers navigate expatriate compensation, accounting for factors such as currency fluctuations, cost inflation for goods and services, and instability in accommodation prices, which are essential to determining the cost of compensation packages for employees on international assignments.

N’Djamena (13), Lagos (19) and Libreville (20) were ranked the first, second and third costliest cities in Africa for international employees. Lusaka was the cheapest in Africa at position 208.

The list of top 10 most expensive cities mostly features global financial hubs like Hong Kong, which was the priciest last year, Tokyo, Shanghai, Zurich and Singapore.