Luanda Named World's Most Expensive City

The next time you moan about the frankly exhorbitant cost of living in the UK, thank your lucky stars that you don’t live in the Angolan capital of Luanda.

As implausible as it sounds, the southern African city has just been named the most expensive place to live by the human resource and financial consultancy firm Mercer .

Renting a house will cost you $10,000 (£6,300) a month, a hotel room won’t leave you any chance from $400 (£250) a night and the humble tomato weighs in at a whopping $7 (£4.40) a pound.

The staggering prices are attributed to the costs of coming out of a 27-year civil war which decimated Angola from 1975 to 2002. Now a country that was previously self-sufficient is forced to import 80 per cent of its goods. An influx of expatriates seduced by the promises of riches in the oil and construction sectors has contributed to these spiralling costs.

So perhaps think twice when your boss asks if you fancy a transfer to Luanda.

(Image: Wiki Commons)