City Mayors: World's most expensive cities in 2009

Mumbai is the world's least expensive city

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The most expensive and
richest cities in the world
A report by UBS

The most expensive cities in the world
22 August 2009: Many of the world’s regions have switched places in the UBS rankings as currencies fluctuated in the wake of the financial crisis. London, the second most expensive city in the 2006 review, plummeted nearly 20 places following the pound’s steep devaluation, landing in the middle of the Western European rankings. Currency devaluation pushed down prices in many emerging market cities as well. Prices slipped the most in Mexico City, Moscow and Seoul. Despite the overall slump in average prices in Latin America, Caracas proved to be a costly place to visit. One likely reason for the massive price increases in Venezuela’s capital is its high inflation rate of 30 per cent over the past three years, which a reduction in the official exchange rate, pegged to the US$ since March 2005, could not fully offset.

Rank 2009	Rank 2008	Cities
1	2	Oslo
2	6	Zurich
3	4	Copenhagen
4	7	Geneva
5	8	Tokyo
6	5	New York
7	9	Helsinki
8	13	Vienna
9	10	Paris
10	3	Dublin
11	15	Munich
12	40	Caracas
13	16	Frankfurt
14	11	Luxembourg
15	21	Los Angeles
16	12	Stockholm
17	23	Rome
18	28	Lyon
19	34	Dubai
20	19	Brussels
21	1	London
22	26	Barcelona
23	14	Amsterdam
24	38	Singapore
25	18	Chicago
26	22	Madrid
27	30	Berlin
28	35	Hong Kong
29	33	Miami
30	20	Milan
31	24	Toronto
32	25	Montreal
33	43	Tel Aviv
34	29	Istanbul
35	32	Lisbon
36	39	Athens
37	27	Nicosia
38	17	Sydney
39	-	Doha
40	47	Ljubljana
41	67	Shanghai
42	42	São Paulo
43	31	Seoul
44	51	Riga
45	36	Auckland
46	49	Taipei
47	52	Manama
48	41	Rio de Janeiro
49	54	Bratislava
50	61	Bangkok
51	50	Prague
52	65	Beijing
53	45	Tallinn
54	59	Vilnius
55	44	Warsaw
56	37	Moscow
57	46	Budapest
58	55	Sofia
59	60	Kiev
60	69	Lima
61	70	Buenos Aires
62	48	Santiago
63	62	Nairobi
64	64	Johannesburg
65	63	Jakarta
66	57	Bogotá
67	53	Bucharest
68	58	Mexico City
69	-	Cairo
70	71	Kuala Lumpur
71	66	Manila
72	68	Delhi
73	56	Mumbai

UBS survey: Introduction | The most expensive cities | The richest cities (personal earnings) | Richest cities (purchasing power) | The iPod index |

Methodology
USB conducted its standardized Prices and Earnings survey in 73 international cities in March 2009. The data was collected by several independent observers in each city. In all, more than 30,000 data points were included in the analysis. All amounts were converted into a single currency to ensure that the surveyed prices and earnings could be compared. To compensate for daily exchange rate fluctuations, we used the average exchange rate over the data collection period. An international price comparison needs a common, standard basket of goods and services. As in past studies, the basket of goods and services was based on Western European consumer preferences. Living costs were calculated based on a survey of 154 items in total. They include 122 products and services that are used directly to calculate the reference basket. Apartment rents were classified as high-, mid- and low-priced.

Related research

THE MOST EXPENSIVE AND RICHEST CITIES IN THE WORLD

UBS survey (August 2009): Most expensiv and richeste cities (Intro) | World's most expensive cities (table) | Richest cities by personal earnings (table) | Richest cities by purchasing power (table | The iPod index |

ECA International survey (June 2009): Introduction | Table: World | Table: Europe | Table: Asia |

Mercer survey (2009): Most expensive cities

EIU survey (2009): Most expensive cities

RICHEST CITIES BY GDP
Introduction | 150 richest cities in 2005 | 150 richest cities in 2020 | Europe's richest cities |

Mayor Monitor allows you to rate the performance of your mayor More

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City Mayors provides Mayor Monitor (MM) to allow residents and non-residents to rate the performance of mayors from across the world as well as highlight their ‘best’ and ‘worst’ decisions. Mayor Monitor uses the widely understood one-to-ten rating system, where '1' signifies an extremely poor performance and '10' ‘an outstanding one. In addition to rating mayors’ performances, citizens are invited to highlight the best and worst decisions by city leaders.

Over time, Mayor Monitor will provide a valuable track record of mayors’ successes and failures as well as their popularity among residents and a wider public. The results will be published on the City Mayors website and updated monthly.

Please rate your mayor now.

The ratings will become a contributory factor of World Mayor 2010.

The most expensive and richest cities in the world A report by UBS

The most expensive and
richest cities in the world
A report by UBS