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Tokyo now most expensive city: survey

Tokyo has replaced Hong Kong as the world's most expensive city, according to a lifestyle survey which also showed the gap between the world's costliest and cheapest cities narrowing for a sixth straight year.

Moscow held steady in second place, followed by the Osaka, which went up three places from last year. At the other end, Asuncion, Paraguay, replaced Johannesburg as the cheapest city in the world.

Tokyo, where cab fares start at ?660 (US$5.61), was 26 percent more expensive than New York City, according to the 144-city survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

"The depreciation of the US dollar against the euro, high inflation and economic recession in many countries have modified the scores of a number of cities," said Yvonne Traber, a senior researcher at Mercer.

The cost of living in Geneva surged, pushing the city to sixth place from 28 last year, while Singapore tumbled from 24 to 32.

Mercer said the gulf between those at the top and bottom of the pile had narrowed by four percentage points in the 12 months to March this year.

The survey, which uses New York as the base city with a score of 100 points, measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items including housing, food, clothing, household products, transport and entertainment.

Of the top 20 costliest cities, half are Asian. Hong Kong fell to fourth place from first last year.
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