Researching Overseas Business Costs

If you have companies in your area that relocating employees abroad or doing business in another country, you will want to take look at the Web site of the U.S. Department of State. The agency publishes quarterly report indexes of living costs abroad that compare expenses in key international cities with Washington, D.C. They publish the data for use by private organizations in establishing compensation systems for their American employees assigned or traveling abroad.

The U.S. Department of State publishes indexes of living expenses abroad for approximately 180 locations. For most countries, they compute indexes for one location, usually the capital city. The indexes are computed for more than one post in those countries where the government pays a post allowance (i.e., cost of living allowance) and where there are significant differences in living costs among cities assigned to U.S. government employees.

Source: Harvard Business Review