Expats hit with higher living costs despite weak SGD

Singapore is among the world’s costliest locations, reveals report.

Expats based in Singapore are grappling with steadily rising living costs in spite of the local currency's weakness against the greenback, according to the latest Cost of Living survey by ECA International.

The survey revealed that Singapore is the world’s 18th most expensive location for expatriates. The city-state has moved up six places in the global rankings and is now one of the 20 costliest locations for expats globally.

“In spite of the devaluation of the Singapore Dollar earlier in 2015, Singapore has continued to rise up our rankings as the impact of the weaker currency has been offset by relatively high levels of inflation seen in items in our basket of goods meaning that where companies provide cost of living allowances to their international executives assigned to Singapore, these will likely need to be raised in order to ensure that employee purchasing power can be maintained," said said Lee Quane, Regional Director – Asia, ECA International.

Within the Asia Pacific region, Hong Kong has overtaken Singapore in the rankings and is now 5 places above it.

A year ago, Hong Kong was one place behind Singapore in the regional rankings. Hong Kong’s rise up the rankings is largely due to the relative strength of its currency in the past 12 months

“While many may take comfort in the knowledge that the cost of living in the Lion City is once again lower than the SAR, living costs have continued to rise in the past 12 months,” Quane asserted.