Almaty More Expensive than Los-Angeles
Mercer Human Resources Consulting released its 2007 Cost of Living Survey:
Mercer’s annual Cost of Living Survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.
Moscow tops the list second year in a row, and is followed by four other most expensive cities: London, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Apart from Moscow and Kiev, another city in post-Soviet area that is in the list is Almaty. It made its surprising jump to the top, from 52nd place in 2006 to 30th place in 2007.
So, Almaty turns out to be more expensive than Istanbul (38), Frankfurt (40), Los Angeles (42), Luxembourg (43), Brussels (44), Berlin (45) and Prague (49).
on June 29th, 2007 at 5:51 am
ha-ha, cool huh?
well, the ratings are judged by the economic development.
No wonder, Astana entered the Guinness Record Book as the most rapidly developing capitals in the world. This is possible and Moscow is really the most expensive city in the world. It was published in “Tvoi Den” newspaper last year and this year. So, I believe this is true.
on July 14th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Yes, Almaty is definitely more pretty than Los Angeles. Plus, the highways there make it a really unbearable. You can find yourself in some pretty bad neighborhoods in L.A. that could possibly endanger your life if you’re wearing the wrong color of the local gang. You don’t really have dangers like that in Almaty.
As for Almaty there are other dangers like getting run over by rich kids in S.U.V’s (I’ve observed the more expensive your car is in Almaty the faster and more wreckless people drive.)and getting hit on the head by falling cement from the historic architecture being knocked down daily.
It’s true you can spend more money here on things like cell phones, apartments, and restaurants with spotty service and questionable haute cuisine(better to have the Lagman for a couple of hundred tenge in the zylony bazaar)and I’ve spotted a Cartier Jeweler in the Semal district!
As for the smog here I’m sure at times it gets worse than L.A. but at least Almaty has the alpine air to push it all away.
There aren’t the miles upon miles of suburban sprawl yet in Almaty that L.A. has but I’m sure the city is working on it. Equally as interesting as suburban sprawl you can walk around almaty and enjoy all of the metal walls they put up to hide the destruction of the city. A French friend of mine has dubbed these synonymous walls as ” Le Metal Blanc”.
As for being so expensive here it seems as if most of the businesses that cater to the rich don’t really need to make a profit. I’m sure there’s a reason for this. I don’t really need to get creative with this but I’ve seen places that are similar on Rodeo Drive in L.A.-perhaps they’re little pet projects for rich housewives with nothing better to do.