Moscow Becomes Europe's Most Expensive City Again

Australia and New Zealand are the cheapest region in the world

According to the results of the annual research conducted by the company Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Moscow became the most expensive city in Europe and the second most expensive city in the world after Tokyo. Moscow has gained this title for the third time in a row, as in 2001 and 2002. The third position on the list of world's most expensive cities is taken by the Japanese city of Osaka, which is followed by Hong Kong and Beijing.

The European top list includes the following cities: Moscow, Geneva, London, Zurich, St.Petersburg, Oslo. Geneva ranks sixth on the world's rating, having made its way from the 28th position taken in 2002. The ninth position is taken by Zurich, which was listed as number 32 in 2002.

New York takes the tenth position on the list of the world's most expensive cities. American cities Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami took the 22nd, the 25th and the 27th position respectively. Experts believe that Geneva's and Zurich's rise on the list is explained with the growth of the euro rate against the dollar. In addition to it, high inflation rates and the global economic setback have affected the situation too.

The Mercer's research is based on comparing the cost of 200 typical goods and services in 144 large cities all over the world. The agency compared rents, prices on food, clothes, domestic goods, transportation and entertainment costs.

New Zealand and Australia are the cheapest region. The only city of the region that was included on the top 100 list was Sydney – the 67th position. International corporations use this index to calculate compensation that their foreign employees are supposed to get.