Josephine Chow

I’m sure you are all aware - according to Mercer’s 2007 survey which published over week ago, the world’s most expensive city to live is once again Moscow, and London takes the number 2 spot up 3 places compare with last year! Don’t you just wish to be somewhere else now?? I’m surprised things are pricer here than Tokyo! In case you wonder, here the list:

1. Moscow

2. London

3. Seoul

4. Tokyo

5. Hong Kong

6. Copenhagen

7. Geneva

8. Osaka

9. Zurich

10. Oslo

11. Milan

12. St Petersburg (Russia)

13. Paris

14. Singapore

15. New York City

16. Dublin

17. Tel Aviv

18. Rome

19. Vienna

20. Beijing

(and if you want to know the rest, look it up yourself)

Here are some interesting facts

- the world’s least expensive city is still Asuncion in Paraguay for past 5 years

- four of the world’s top 10 cities are in Asia

- within North America cities, only New York and LA are the only two to rank the top 50

- Toronto being the most expensive in Canada but only takes number 82 place worldwide

I don’t know how accurate this survey is but the report measures the cost of 200 items such as housing, clothing, transport and food etc in 143 cities worldwide, to help global companies/governments to work out compensation & allowance for expatriate their employees, so income has not been taken into consideration. I have come across with this Big Mac article, to help determine the relationship between wages & prices - The world’s average worker needs to work 35 minutes to buy a Big Mac, and apparently, it takes one and half hours’ work to buy a burger in Nairobi. In the US cities like NY, LA and Chicago a maximum of 13 mins is needed, compares with Swiss & Scandinavian cities, 15-20 minutes as the production costs are higher. How much is a Big Mac in London (sorry not had one for ages) I guess £2.50?? It will take 10.8 minutes for me.. (after lots of my hard earn money is taken away by those ugly tax man…) I have earned myself two free burgers with the time it has taken to write this blog entry!! cool stuff!!

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