Angola's capital Luanda Overtakes Hong Kong as World's Costliest City

Angola's capital Luanda has overtaken Hong Kong to become the costliest city in the world for expats, Mercer's annual survey said on Wednesday June 21,2017

Dethroned last year by the Chinese city, Luanda regained the dubious honour despite the depreciation of the local kwanza currency against the dollar, according to the survey by the Mercer consulting group.

While Hong Kong is bounced back down to second place it remains the most expensive Asian city "because of its currency's link to the dollar, a factor which makes local housing more expensive," the report said.

After topping the Cost of Living report for three consecutive years, Luanda was pipped by the Asian city in 2016, owing to a stronger Hong Kong dollar.

This year Tokyo completes the podium, moving up from fifth place last year because of the yen's appreciation and "the dynamism of the housing market" in Japan.

The survey compares the cost of over 200 items in over 200 cities, including housing, food, transport and entertainment.