Friday, September 9, 2011

Moving to Mogadishu

Today we look at moving to Mogadishu in Somalia from Sao Tome in Sao Tome and Principe. We highlight cost of living and other major differences likely to be experienced in our series of short blogs on moving between different international locations.
In Mogadishu people speak Somali, Arabic, Italian and English. In Sao Tome people speak Portuguese.

Mogadishu is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Sao Tome is the capital city of Sao Tome and Principe and is the largest town. Mogadishu is the commercial and financial center of Somalia. Although the economy has recovered somewhat from the civil unrest, the Somali Civil War still presents many problems. The effective absence of government yields free trade without taxes or regulatory expenditures, but comes at the cost of civil society and infrastructure. Businesses have hired armed militias to provide security against gunmen, leading to a gradual reduction in open street violence. However, high levels of crime including frequent murders and occasional bombings are still rampant in the city. Sao Tome is an important port and center of the island's road and bus networks.

The overall cost of living rank in Mogadishu is 242 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with low cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Sao Tome to Mogadishu will experience a change in cost of living of -22.8%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Mogadishu is ranked as an extreme hardship location with a hardship index of 40% compared to Sao Tome with a hardship index of 30% which is a high degree of hardship location.

Source: Cost of Living Mogadishu Somalia as at July 2011.

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