BEIJING-Shanghai Consumer index may overtake Hong Kong in the future

The December 3 of the daily economic growth of the Asian region, led to a rise in Asia's living consumption index. Development and human Resources allocation programme suppliers ECA international earlier surveys found that inflation in Asia, combined with the continued impact of currency exchange rates, has increased the cost of living expenses for expatriate employees in the region.　　The survey also found that in recent years, Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities in mainland China's consumer index has soared, is expected to overtake Asia's sixth-ranked Hong Kong, as the world's highest cost of living in one of the regions. According to the report of the Hong Kong Grand Bulletin, ECA conducts two of similar surveys each year, and in more than 400 regions of the world, including more than 50 Asian regions, conducts surveys on 170 items and services of the same food, general necessities of life such as clothing and electronic goods, to determine the living expenses indices. The ECA survey of data from March to this year found continued growth in the region's living index, which Quane, ECA's regional director for Asia, said was linked to a European economic slowdown: "The economic situation in Europe remains weak and some regional currencies, particularly the euro, remain sluggish, and the Asian market is strong, Led to a sharp rise in the region's consumer index, including Tokyo, Japan, which topped last year's list of the world's living expenses index in Luanda, the capital of Angola.　　In addition to Tokyo, Japan also has three cities to enter the world's top five. In this survey, the cost of living in Hong Kong ranked sixth in Asia and the cost of living rose by 4%, but Hong Kong's ranking in Asia was slightly lower than that of the last survey, Quane explained that it was linked to the US dollar peg.　　At the same time, the South Korean capital, led by the won, Seoul in Asia ranked two, more than Hong Kong to promote to Asia V, he estimates that the mainland's living index is strong, the next two years will also be expected to drive Hong Kong, the world's highest living index of one of the regions. "About five years ago, the living indices of mainland cities such as Shanghai and Beijing were some distance away from Hong Kong, but they were very close in recent years, and in the Asian rankings, Shanghai and Hong Kong were only one, reflecting that the future would probably overtake Hong Kong."　　In addition to the mainland cities, Singapore has also become one of Hong Kong's "rivals", taking two years ago as an example, the disparity in living expenses between Hong Kong and Singapore is 15%, and the gap has fallen to 7% after a year, and this survey only has a 2% gap, reflecting that the living indices in neighbouring areas have been tracked and even surpassed. In recent years, the renminbi has surged and its standard of living has been affected, Quane said, even if the renminbi continues to rise in the future, other regions to work in the mainland, the employees believe that will only increase will not be reduced. "In the past, companies would send their staff because of the low consumption of Chinese, but now the company will also see the international status of China and send staff to develop in the mainland, so that even if the renminbi continues to rise, the number of people stationed in the mainland will become more and more".