INDIAN CITIES BECOME CHEAPER TO LIVE IN FOR EXPATRIATES

New Delhi, Jun 12 (PTI) - Rise in commodity prices, which
has impacted the common man in the country, has surprisingly
not hit the expatriates living here and their cost of living
in Indian cities has actually become cheaper, a latest survey
says.

Seven Indian cities -- Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Pune
Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bangalore all witnessed a fall in
their global ranks making them cheaper to live in for
expatriates, according to the March survey prepared by Hong
Kong-based solution provider for international Human Resource
professionals E.C.A. International.

Mumbai and New Delhi have fallen 15 and 18 places to 192
and 196th ranks respectively, while Hyderabad has dropped 22
positions to 211 in March survey as against the September,
2007 survey carried out by the firm.

Bangalore has fallen 13 places to 218th position, while
Chennai is at the 207th place as against 186th place in the
previous survey, Kolkata is at 216 (193rd) followed by Pune at
217 (194th), the E.C.A. survey revealed.

"Cities in the Korea Republic, Hong Kong and India are
among the Asian locations that have fallen the most in the
ranking. The weakening of these countries' currencies between
surveys explains these falls," the E.C.A. survey stated.

The major reasons of expatriates facing less of inflation
pressure is due to their being on relatively higher income
levels in developing countries, which means that the impact of
increases on basic necessities is felt by them less than those
on lower wages.

Furthermore, cost of living calculations take into
account relative inflation between home and host locations.
With inflation being experienced globally, increases in prices
at the assignment location are often offset by the rise in
prices in the home country, the survey stated.

The Cost of Living survey is topped by Japan's Tokyo as
the costliest city for expats in Asia followed by another
Japanese cities Yokohama, Korea's Seoul and Nagoya at the
second, third and fourth ranks in that order.

Japan's Kobe (5th), Korea's Busan (6th) and Ulsan (7th),
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in Russia (8th), Hong Kong (9th) and Beijing
in China (10) are the other cities among the ten costliest
places in Asia.

Among the Asian rankings, Indian cities Mumbai and Delhi
occupy 33th and 34th positions while Chennai comes at 37th
place followed by Hyderabad (40), Kolkata (43) and Pune (44).

Interestingly, Bangalore (45) is among the six cities
with the least cost of living among Asian cities, along with
the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo (46) and Pakistan's capital
Islamabad (49).

"The recent major swings in exchange rates underlines the
need for companies to manage expatriate pay carefully. We
normally advise paying part of an assignee's salary in the
home location and part in the host location since this helps
to limit the adverse affects of subsequent exchange rate
fluctuations," E.C.A. International Asia General Manager Lee
Quane.

Living costs for expatriates are affected by inflation,
availability of goods and exchange rates, all of which can
have a significant impact on expatriate remuneration packages.

E.C.A's cost of living survey is based on comparison of a
basket of 128 consumer goods and services commonly purchased
by expatriates in over 370 locations worldwide.

Globally, the most expensive city for expatriates is
Luanda in Angola, followed by Norwegian capital of Oslo,
Stavanger (Norway) and Copenhagen (Denmark) and Moscow
(Russia).