World's Most Expensive Cities

Do You Know? From: karlascottspeaker.blogspot.com

Today’s topic: World's most expensive cities in 2008 (in rank order)

Are you confident that you know the world’s most expensive cities? I bet you’ll be surprised by some cities on the list. First, let’s review the research methodology used by Mercer, a global human resources and financial consulting firm. The data in this study reflects a survey measuring the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. Produced by Mercer, the survey is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

Here are the top 25, ranked:

1. Moscow, Russia (was #1 in 2007 also)
2. Tokyo, Japan
3. London, United Kingdom
4. Oslo, Norway
5. Seoul, South Korea
6. Hong Kong, Hong Kong
7. Copenhagen, Denmark
8. Geneva, Switzerland
9. Zurich, Switzerland
10. Milan, Italy
11. Osaka, Japan
12. Paris, France
13. Singapore, Singapore
14. Tel Aviv, Israel
15. Sydney, Australia
16. Dublin, Ireland
17. Rome, Italy
18. St. Petersburg, Russia
19. Vienna, Austria
20. Beijing, China
21. Helsinki, Finland
22. New York City, United States
23. Istanbul, Turkey
24. Shanghai, China
25. Amsterdam, Netherlands

The USA has only one city in the top 50, New York City.

Cities that climbed most sharply in rankings versus the prior year are: Istanbul (38 to 23), Prague (49 to 29), Rio de Janeiro (64 to 31), Warsaw (67 to 35), and Melbourne (64 to 36).