2009 Cost of Living survey by Mercer

Last year's rankings in brackets:

1. Tokyo (2)
2. Osaka (11)
3. Moscow (1)
4. Geneva (8)
5. Hong Kong (6)
6. Zurich (9)
7. Copenhagen (7)
8. New York City (22)
9. Beijing (20)
10. Singapore (13)

It is no doubt the currency fluctuation and strengthening of dollar resulted in the major ranking reshuffle. I was surprised to see London not in the list! It had dropped 13 places to 16. The Korean won made a significant loss against the US dollar last year and slipped out of top 50 from its 3rd and 5th places respectively in 2007 and 2008!

The dramatic depreciation of Australian dollar against the US dollar also see Sydney from 15th to 66th this year, while the yen and renminbi performed relatively stronger!

Now we know why fresh architecture graduates are paid SGD 5000/mth in Hong Kong!