The World’s Most Expensive Cities

A word of warning. you may be shocked when you take a look at this Top 30.

This list could save you a fortune, on the other hand it could confirm that you may want to take a little more money with you, as well as a Mobal World Phone.

The usual suspects are here, as well as a few movers and shakers that may take you  by surprise.

Oslo retains the title of ‘The Worlds Most Expensive City’, while their neighbouring  Scandinavian Cities Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki also make the Top 10.

Tokyo is the most expensive Asian city, but Singapore is catching up having entered the Top 10 this year, climbing 14 places since 2009.

Sydney is the big mover, having jumped up 31 places in the rankings, it can now empty your pockets a little bit quicker than before.

A few of the ranking stalwarts, including New York, London and Paris do not even appear in the Top 10. While Canadian Cities, Toronto   and Montreal, have raced up the rankings and climbed up 22 and 15 places respectively.

The rankings are produced from the Swiss-based UBS Prices and Earnings report. It compares the average “shopping basket” of 122 goods and services. This is done every three years and adjusts for inflation, GDP growth and changes in foreign exchange rates.

“Sydney continues its storm to the top of our rankings”. “To some extent this development can be explained by the Australian dollar’s continued appreciation against both the US dollar and the euro.”

Workers in some of the world’s most expensive cities receive a fair lick in their pay packets, too, which doesn’t help holiday-makers. Though if you earn a buck in Zurich, Sydney or Luxembourg, chances are you have the highest net purchasing power.

So here’s the run down:

RANK 2011	CITIES	RANK 2009	POSITION CHANGE
1	Oslo	1	0	NON MOVER
2	Zurich	2	0	NON MOVER
3	Geneva	4	1	UP
4	Copenhagen	3	-1	DOWN
5	Stockholm	16	11	UP
6	Tokyo	5	-1	DOWN
7	Sydney	38	31	UP
8	Helsinki	7	-1	DOWN
9	Toronto	31	22	UP
10	Singapore	24	14	UP
11	Vienna	8	-3	DOWN
12	Paris	9	-3	DOWN
13	Luxembourg	14	1	UP
14	New York City	6	-8	DOWN
15	London	21	6	UP
16	Munich	11	-5	DOWN
17	Montreal	32	15	UP
18	Frankfurt	13	-5	DOWN
19	Sao Paulo	42	23	UP
20	Dublin	10	-10	DOWN
21	Brussels	20	-1	DOWN
22	Rome	17	-5	DOWN
23	Lyon	18	-5	DOWN
24	Auckland	45	21	UP
25	Barcelona	22	-3	DOWN
26	Rio de Janeiro	48	22	UP
27	Dubai	19	-8	DOWN
28	Istanbul	34	6	UP
29	Amsterdam	23	-6	DOWN
30	Madrid	20	-10	DOWN