PARIS - The French capital shot up to third place in the worldwide cost-of-living league table on Tuesday, as the strong euro made Paris the most expensive European city to live in.

Paris moved up from seventh place in the Economist Intelligence Unit's bi-annual Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, pushing it above non-eurozone cities like Copenhagen and Zurich and within 10 percent of Tokyo, which remains the world's most expensive destination.

Although actual prices have not changed, the weak US dollar and strong European currencies have given Europe 20 of the top 25 slots in the table.

Sharing joint third position with Paris is Oslo, which is outside the eurozone, as are Copenhagen, Zurich, and London, which take up fifth and joint-sixth positions respectively.

London rose from tenth position due to the strong performance of the pound against the dollar.

Vienna, at tenth in the latest figures, is the only eurozone city apart from Paris in the top ten.

Portugal remains the cheapest eurozone country, with Lisbon (54th) being the only "old EU" city (ie excluding those in the ten new member-states) outside the top 50.

Athens, home to the upcoming Olympic Games, also offers good value as the second-cheapest eurozone destination.

Worldwide, Osaka Kobe stayed in second position. The world's cheapest city was the Iranian capital, Tehran.

US cities have seen relative costs fall dramatically in line with the weakening dollar, with New York dropping 14 places to 27th over the past 12 months, making it relatively cheaper than Australian cities like Sydney (14th) and Melbourne (18th).

The survey compares prices and products in over 130 cities around the world with the aim of providing companies with a guide from which allowances can be calculated for expat compensation packages.

The data used New York as a base index of 100 for comparisons. This gave Tokyo an index of 143, Paris 130, London 125, Amsterdam 111, Munich 110, Frankfurt 107, Berlin 106, Lyon 105 and Brussels 104, Hamburg 100, and Madrid and Barcelona an index of 96.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: French news