Hong Kong becomes world's 3rd priciest expat city

Hong Kong jumped three places to rank as the third most expensive city for expatriates in the world, according to the annual cost of living survey conducted by consultancy firm Mercer.

The survey, which was conducted in March with the result released on Thursday, covers 211 cities on five continents and measures the comparative cost of 200 items, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It attributed the shifts to currency fluctuations and the impact of inflation on goods and services.

Thanks to China's strengthening yuan, the country is getting more expensive for foreigners to live abroad in China. The survey showed that Shanghai and Beijing both rose four spots to number 10 and 11, respectively, while Shenzhen, which ranked 29th last year, jumped to rank 17th. All of the nine Chinese cities included in the survey rose in the rankings, with Chengdu rocketing the farthest from 97th to 71st place.

Other Asian cities such as Tokyo and Seoul, along with some Australian cities, fell in the survey, as the local currency has depreciated against the U.S. dollar.

The most expensive cities were Luanda, Angola, which ranked the first for the second year in a row, and N'Djamena, Chad, which rose two places to number two, according to the survey.