In Mercer’s 2020 Cost of Living Survey released recently, the southern metro moved from 120th most expensive last year to 111th now. Hanoi fell to 116th from 112th.

The survey is designed to help multinational companies and governments understand how expensive cities are to live in for their expatriate employees, and determine payment and compensation strategies.

The survey did not reveal average living costs in each city. But according to global database Numbeo, life in Hanoi costs a person over 455 USD a month (without rent), and in HCMC 454 dollars.

The data was collected in March, and Mercer said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it did further analysis on the availability of goods in April and May to confirm pricing./.