Adam's Apple
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- Apr 25, 2004
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The Most Expensive City Is -- Oslo
By MSN Money Staff
A weaker dollar and surging economies make life more expensive in Scandinavia and Latin America. Tehran, once the costliest place to live, now is at the bottom of the list.
Tokyo's 14-year reign as the world's most expensive city ended as the Japanese capital was supplanted, surprisingly, by the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
The Scandinavian city surged in the Worldwide Cost of Living survey compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, helped by strength of its currency against the U.S. dollar. Icelandic capital Reykjavik showed the biggest jump in cost of living in the last 12 months, shooting to No. 3 on the list.
"Tokyo has had an economic slowdown recently, they've had deflation and a weak exchange rate," Jon Copestake, editor at the EIU, told CNBC Europe. Favorable exchange rates and strong private consumption, gross domestic product growth and inflation drove Scandinavian cities up the list.
The biannual survey compares the cost of a basket of over 160 goods and services in dollar terms, including everything from babysitting services to entertainment and clothing. It is used by companies as a guide for calculating living expenses for executives and their families being sent overseas.
The data use New York as a base index of 100 for comparison. The cost of living in the cheapest city, Tehran, Iran, has an index of 33 -- less than a third that of New York. But before its currency was revalued in 1991, Tehran ranked as the most expensive city on the planet.
for full article:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P143604.asp
By MSN Money Staff
A weaker dollar and surging economies make life more expensive in Scandinavia and Latin America. Tehran, once the costliest place to live, now is at the bottom of the list.
Tokyo's 14-year reign as the world's most expensive city ended as the Japanese capital was supplanted, surprisingly, by the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
The Scandinavian city surged in the Worldwide Cost of Living survey compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, helped by strength of its currency against the U.S. dollar. Icelandic capital Reykjavik showed the biggest jump in cost of living in the last 12 months, shooting to No. 3 on the list.
"Tokyo has had an economic slowdown recently, they've had deflation and a weak exchange rate," Jon Copestake, editor at the EIU, told CNBC Europe. Favorable exchange rates and strong private consumption, gross domestic product growth and inflation drove Scandinavian cities up the list.
The biannual survey compares the cost of a basket of over 160 goods and services in dollar terms, including everything from babysitting services to entertainment and clothing. It is used by companies as a guide for calculating living expenses for executives and their families being sent overseas.
The data use New York as a base index of 100 for comparison. The cost of living in the cheapest city, Tehran, Iran, has an index of 33 -- less than a third that of New York. But before its currency was revalued in 1991, Tehran ranked as the most expensive city on the planet.
for full article:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P143604.asp
