Spending patterns amongst expatriates on international assignments can vary a great deal How do spending patterns impact expatriate salary calculations

Definition: A Cost Of Living Index (COLI) is a price index that measures the relative cost of living over time It is an index that measures differences in the price of goods and services

I recently visited the wonderful island of Sri Lanka, and found a country full of surprises Sri Lanka is situated just south of India, in the Indian Ocean

The January 2010 International Cost of Living Ranking covers 276 global locations across the world We have reported the 10 most expensive countries to live in, the 10 fastest movers up and down in ranking and the 10 most expensive locations per basket item

Engagement is a fairly recent term in business In the past the talk was about “attracting, motivating and retaining” expatriate employees

The October 2009 International Cost of Living Ranking, one of the most comprehensive in the world, covers 276 cities in 209 countries across 13 basket groups Below we have listed the Top 10 most expensive countries to live in, the biggest movers up and down in country ranking and the 5 most expensive countries per basket item

The most expensive global location to live in, as at July 2009, is still Tokyo Japan, however there have been some significant changes in the last year mainly due to large differences in exchange rates, and more recently, a real drop in prices along with the majority of global locations enjoying their lowest inflation rates in recent times

International cost of living rankings are the result of comparing the cost of an expatriate’s personal budget, using the local prices for the same defined quantities of the same goods and services in each country throughout the world Our findings show that the compound impact of the multifaceted global economic trends that impact each country in one way or another, are contributing to rapid substantial changes in the relative cost of living of countries around the world

When an expatriate moves from one geographic location to another, the change in cost of living they experience is relative to the change in the purchasing power of their salary The basic principle is that a move to a higher cost of living city should be accompanied by a proportionately higher salary in order to maintain the same amount of purchasing power and vice versa