Zurich tops Tokyo
- Created on Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:45
Zurich has taken the crown as the most expensive city in which to live.
The Swiss city has overtaken Tokyo which had been the world leader in expensive cost of living.
Zurich was found to be 70% more expensive than New York City, which was used by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the benchmark.
Tokyo was knocked down to the second most expensive in the world.
The top 10 most expensive places to live are equally divided between Europe and Asia, with Oslo, Paris, Frankfurt and Geneva completing the European contingent.
In broader Asia, Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Singapore are in the top ten.
London came in number 17 and New York entered at 47, tied with Chicago.
The push to the top of Australian cities and Singapore is a recent phenomenon. Just 10 years ago, Singapore was 2% cheaper than New York. Now it is 42% more expensive.
Singapore recently overtook Hong Kong due in part to its emergence as an international finance centre.
The survey is based on the cost of good and services, including food, transport, private education and domestic help, but excluding property prices. Had they been included, Hong Kong and Singapore would have been pushed yet higher up the rank of expensive cities.
Asia is at the same time home to some of the world’s cheapest places to live in, with Mumbai, Kathmandu and Karachi all in the bottom 10.
