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Rabat – Morocco’s largest metropolis has ranked this year as the most expensive city in North Africa in which to live and work, according to the latest report of Mercer.
Shedding light on the correlation between the Cost of Living Index and the Quality of Living Index for a selected list of global cities, Mercer’s 2022 report found Casablanca to have the highest cost of living for expatriates among the selected North African cities.
Primarily driving the Moroccan city’s high rank are rising inflationary pressures due to the COVID-19 crisis and the Ukrainian war, which made living expenses higher across the globe, the report found.
The second most expensive North African city is Egypt’s Cairo (154th worldwide), followed by Morocco’s capital Rabat (162nd), Mauritania’s Nouakchott (169th), Algeria’s Algiers (218th), and the Tunisian capital Tunis (220th).
Hong Kong tops Mercer’s 2022 Cost of Living City Ranking, followed by four Swiss cities (Zurich, Geneva, Basel, and Bern), while Israel’s Tel Aviv comes in the 6th place ahead of New York, Singapore, Tokyo, and Beijing.
In the MENA region, Dubai and Abu Dhabi occupy the 31th and 61st places worldwide respectively, followed by Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh (103rd) and Jeddah (111st), Jordan’s Amman (115th), and Bahrain’s Manama (117th).
Read Also: Quality of Life Index: Morocco Third Best African Country
The report highlights key economic indicators in 227 cities that attract and retain top talent and international business such as currency fluctuations, cost inflation, and accommodation price instability.
Ankara (Turkey) closes the ranking at the 227th spot.
The ranking also takes into consideration other components including the affordability of housing, safety, sanitation, eco-friendliness, education standards, as well as governance and taxation considerations.
Last month, the data platform Statista featured three Moroccan cities – Marrakech, Tangier, and Casablanca – on its list of Africa’s 15 most expensive cities.
Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport was also ranked by the German aviation news outlet Simple Flying as Africa’s busiest airport, coming first in air traffic activities with an average of 10 million visitors.
