Moving to Athens

Today we look at moving to Athens in Greece from Libreville in Gabon. 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 Athens people speak Greek. In Libreville people speak French and Bantu-group languages.

Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon.
Athens is one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Athens is central to economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life in Greece and it is rated as an alpha- world city. It is rapidly becoming a leading business centre in the European Union. The city is home to a shipbuilding industry, brewing industry and sawmills. The city exports raw materials such as wood, rubber and cocoa from the city's main port, and the deepwater port at Owendo.

The overall cost of living rank in Athens is 124 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with middle cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Libreville to Athens will experience a change in cost of living of -14.1%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Athens is ranked as a minimal hardship location with a hardship index of 10% compared to Libreville with a hardship index of 40% which is an extreme hardship location.

Source: http://www.xpatulator.com as at July 2011.