Moving to Maputo

Today we look at moving to Maputo in Mozambique from Majuro in Marshall Islands. 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 Maputo people speak Portuguese (official), Makua-Lomwe, Swahili, other indigenous languages. In Majuro people speak Marshallese and English.

Maputo is the capital and largest city of Mozambique. Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Maputo's chief exports are coal, cotton, sugar, chromite, sisal, copra, and hardwood. The city manufactures cement, pottery, furniture, shoes, and rubber. There is also a large aluminium smelting plant, Mozal. Majuro is built on an atoll of 64 islands, the Majuro Atoll. Majuro has a port, shopping district, hotels, and an international airport.

The overall cost of living rank in Maputo is 194 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with low cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Majuro to Maputo will experience a change in cost of living of -11.6%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Maputo is ranked as a high degree of hardship location with a hardship index of 30% the same as Majuro.

Source: Cost of living Maputo, Mozambique as at July 2011.