Paris ranked world’s fourth most-expensive city

NANTES, Feb 1, 2006 (Expatica) — A European city, Oslo, has overtaken Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world while Paris holds steady in the fourth on a ranking of the cost of living in more than 130 cities released this week.

The survey, conducted by the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit, prices and products calculated in dollars; fluxions in both prices and exchange rates determine changes in the relative cost of living of the cities included.

Tokyo has been ranked the city with the highest cost of living in the world for the past 14 years in a biannual survey,

Europe dominates the top of the list with European cities taking eight of the top 10 spots on the list although Paris is the only eurozone city to appear on the top-ten listing.

For France, Paris tied with Osaka Kobe for the fourth spot while Lyon came in at 24. London took the seventh spot, while the first American city to appear on the list is New York, in the 27th spot.

Oslo was ranked as the third-most expensive city in the spring survey, but took the top spot in the Autumn survey from Tokyo, now ranked as the second most-expensive city. The Economist analysts attributed the change to strong economic growth in Norway, a phenomenon that combines high consumer confidence with strong levels of investment and low interest rates.

Only two European cities saw a relative decline in the cost of living from the results of the spring survey: Tashkent in Uzbekistan (117 from 105 in the spring survey)) and Almaty of Kazakhstan (tied at 117, down from 119).

Dublin, Ireland and Sydney, Australia tied for the 16th spot; Auckland, New Zealand ranked 29th while Montreal, Canada came in at 43 and Johannesburg, South Africa at 77, all listed as the most expensive cities in their respective countries.

And the city with the lowest cost of living in the world? Tehran.

The Top 10 Most Expensive Cities in the World

1 Oslo, Norway
2 Tokyo, Japan
3 Reykjavik, Iceland
4 Osaka Kobe, Japan
4 Paris, France 
6 Copenhagen, Denmark
7 London, UK
8 Zurich, Switzerland
9 Geneva, Switzerland
10 Helsinki, Finland

The Ten Least-Expensive Cities in the World

117 Taskent, Uzbekistan
120 San Jose, Costa Rica
121 Dhaka, Bangladesh
122 New Delhi, India
122 Tripoli, Libya
124 Asuncion, Paraguay
124 Mumbai, India
126 Karachi, Pakistan
127 Manila, Phillippines
128 Tehran, Iran

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit

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Subject: French news