Moscow is priciest city for expatriates

London: Moscow is the world's priciest city for expatriate workers and is almost 1-1/2 times as expensive as New York, Shanghai, Amsterdam and Madrid, a report on relative living costs showed yesterday.

Tokyo rose above London into second place in the world rankings while Oslo, boosted by Norway's petrodollars, climbed six places to fourth.

Asuncion was ranked the world's least expensive major city for a sixth year running, according to the annual survey by human resource consultants Mercer, which measured the cost of more than 200 items in 143 cities.

Moscow had a cost of living index of 142.4 points compared with highest-placed US city New York, which fell seven places to 22nd with a score of 100.

Mercer said currency trends accounted for many of this year's shifts in city rankings, with the rouble, euro, and several other currencies all gaining against the dollar and making US cities in general seem comparatively cheaper.

Countries with high growth rates also saw big rises in relative living costs, with Sao Paulo in Brazil and Istanbul in Turkey among the biggest climbers in the rankings.