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Jakarta:The survey was conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, an international consultant company that regularly organizes a yearly survey on the living costs in 143 major cities on six continents in the world. The survey result for the 2008 period was published yesterday.

The survey was based on more than 200 items in each location, including rent, transportation, food, clothes, household needs, and entertainment. These costs often serve as guidelines for multinational companies to determine the living costs of expatriates who are assigned in these particular cities.

According to the survey, Moscow is the most expensive city in the world, followed by Tokyo and London.

Meanwhile, crowded and polluted Jakarta is at number 84 with an 80.5 index, defeating other major cities in Southeast Asia like Ho Chi Minh (number 100 on the list), Bangkok (105), Kuala Lumpur (106), and Manila (110).

Living in Jakarta was also cited to be more costly than Chicago (84), Boston (99), Washington DC (107), Riyadh (119) and Jeddah (126) Saudi Arabia, and even Ottawa, Canada (85).

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