Thursday March 28th, 2024
Download SceneNow app
Copied

Cairo Named Middle East's Least Expensive City For Expats

Not quite a shocker given the US dollar more than doubled in value against the Egyptian pound over the past couple of years.

Staff Writer

The world's largest human resources consulting firm, Mercer, just released it's annual ranking for the most expensive Middle East cities for expats, ranking Cairo as the least expensive city in the region based on a wide range of factors like stability of the housing market, inflation rate, and prices of goods and services, AME info reports.

Cairo, which has recently ranked as the world's least expensive mega city, made it to the 188th least expensive city in the world according to Mercer, which named Dubai as the region's most expensive city for expats, followed by the UAE's capital, Abu Dhabi.

In fact, the region's most expensive cities almost exclusively lie in the Persian Gulf, with Manama coming in 3rd, followed by Jeddah, Muscat, and Kuwait. According to Mercer's survey, all cities in the region registered a drop in living expenses from last year for expats, due to decreases in rental costs across the region.

“The ranking dip does not necessarily mean that the real cost of living is going down in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as this ranking compares global cities. We can say that the actual cost of living for an expat is not going down but is slashing when you compare it with other global cities like Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York,” said Eugene Watson, a personal wealth manager based in Dubai, according to AME info.