European cities most expensive to live in
European cities are the most expensive places for expats to live in the world, with Moscow, London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Geneva, Zurich and Milan dominating the top 10, in a survey by consulting firm Mercer.
Moscow remained the world's priciest city a second year running, while Tokyo knocked London off the number two spot to number three, with Hong Kong and Seoul the only other non-European towns in the top tier.
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Many European cities shot up the table, with Warsaw climbing from 67 to 35, Prague from 49 to 29 and Istanbul from 38 to 23 on the back of strong local currencies. EU capital Brussels also inched up from 44 to 39.
"[The] weakening of the US dollar which, coupled with the strengthening of the Euro and many other currencies, has caused significant changes in this year's rankings," Mercer analyst Yvonne Traber said.
"Our research confirms the global trend in price increases for certain foodstuffs and petrol," she added. "This is partly balanced by decreasing prices for certain commodities such as electronic and electrical goods."
The Mercer study looks at the prices of accommodation, transport, food, clothes, household goods and entertainment, and is designed to help multinational companies to decide how much to pay workers abroad.
The report also noted that "contrary to the trend observed last year the gap between the world's most and least expensive cities now seems to be widening," although Brazilian and Indian towns also climbed the rankings.
Bulgarian capital Sofia was found to be the cheapest European city - in 97th place - while Asuncion in Paraguay was the world's cheapest overall, at city number 143 in the table, followed by Quito in Ecuador on 142.