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Moscow retained its leadership in the ranking of the most expensive cities in the world for business travelers
Rising prices in the Russian capital, it seems, will soon irritate not only Muscovites themselves, but also foreign citizens coming here to work . According to the ranking of cities in the world with the highest cost of living for employees of international companies published yesterday by the British consulting company Mercer Human Resource, Moscow retains its global leadership in the high cost of business travel for the second year in a row. Even such Asian megacities as Seoul or Tokyo, which held the first position for many years, now cannot keep up with Moscow’s rate of price growth. “The cost of living in Moscow for foreigners has increased due to the appreciation of the ruble and the ever-increasing cost of rental housing,” explains one of the authors of the study, Yvonne Traber.It is noteworthy that the fact of leadership in the ranking of expensive cities not only does not discourage the city authorities, but seems to give them an additional reason for pride. “If even with such a high cost of living, the number of foreign companies continues to grow dynamically, this is the clearest proof of the city’s attractiveness for doing business,” First Deputy Mayor of Moscow Yuri Roslyak told ITAR-TASS yesterday. And according to the chairman of the commission on economic policy and entrepreneurship of the Moscow City Duma, Alexander Kovalev, the increase in the cost of living in Moscow is due to “economic laws that have finally begun to work in Russia.”
Mr. Kovalev has no doubt that the first place in the ranking will not scare away, but will attract both business travelers from abroad and foreign tourists to the capital. The number of the latter, as Moscow officials hope, should grow by 2025 from the current 7-8 to 40 million annually. In addition, the mayor's office and the Moscow City Duma expect that the contingent of visitors will also change radically. “It won’t work now to make a splash for three kopecks, like in the early 90s,” Mr. Kovalev told Vremya Novostey. “And not the poorest foreigners will come to us, as to all European capitals.”
The compilers of the rating compared prices in 143 cities around the world for more than 200 types of products and services used by visiting employees of foreign companies. The “basket” of their expenses included, in particular, housing rent, transport, food, clothing and entertainment. As the basis for the calculations, we took one of the business capitals of the Western world - American New York, which annually receives millions of business travelers. This metropolis was assigned an index of 100 and other cities were compared with it. In fact, New York itself did not even make it into the top ten this year, losing to a number of Asian and European cities, as well as Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In the Russian capital, the cost of living index for managers of international companies increased over the year from 123.9 to 134.4. The capital of Great Britain, London, rose from fifth to second place among the most expensive cities in the world with an index of 126.3 (compared to last year’s 110.6). Third and fourth places went to Seoul and Tokyo, which each dropped one position compared to last year. St. Petersburg, which is 12 positions behind Moscow, has surpassed, for example, Paris (13th) and Tel Aviv (17th place).
Despite the list of leaders remaining virtually unchanged , British researchers still note serious progress in the second and third ten rankings. Mercer Human Resource associates this with the growing volume of Western investment in emerging markets and with growing interest in the CIS countries from large international corporations. This, in their opinion, in turn provokes an increase in prices for services for business travelers and those coming to work on long-term contracts. In particular, Kazakhstan’s Almaty rose in the ranking from 52nd to 30th position over the year. Kyiv has risen by seven points over the year and is now in 28th place. The Ukrainian capital is already ahead of cities such as Barcelona, Frankfurt am Main, Los Angeles, Berlin and Prague in terms of living costs.
However, the compilers of the rating note one feature that is characteristic of cities in Russia and the CIS countries. When assessing the “consumer basket” of a foreign worker here, it is necessary to take into account the difference in prices for “our own people” and visitors that has persisted since Soviet times. In particular, British marketers note that city taxis differ in cost from transport services that hotels provide to their guests; prices in restaurants aimed at wealthy foreigners are often inflated.
Moscow City Duma deputy Alexander Kovalev does not see anything reprehensible in this either. “We live in our own country and, of course, we know where and what we can buy cheaper,” he explained to Vremya Novostey. Yuri Roslyak also notes that in general it is not worth judging the cost of living in the Russian capital based on the ratings of the Mercer Human Resource company, which consults international corporations. The first deputy mayor believes that “the range of expenses that middle and senior managers of foreign companies who come to Moscow on long-term business trips allow themselves” has nothing in common with the consumer basket of the average Muscovite.