“In a [USB] list of high-priced places Oslo has overtaken Tokyo as the costliest place to live. Tokyo is now third on the list - dropping from first place in 2000, when the survey was last done. Hong Kong was second on the list and New York fourth, the survey said.... After New York, the UBS survey said the most expensive cities were Zurich, Switzerland; Copenhagen, Denmark; London; Basel, Switzerland; Chicago, Illinois; and Geneva. The cheapest of the 70 ranked cities were Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Mumbai, India.The bank’s ‘Prices and Earnings’ analysis compares incomes and the cost of living based on the cost of a basket of 111 goods and services. It said that the Swiss cities of Zurich, Geneva and Basel had the highest purchasing power, followed by Los Angeles and Luxembourg. The survey said people in Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago needed to work just 10 minutes to earn enough to buy a Big Mac from a McDonald’s restaurant. That compared to three hours, five minutes for a worker in Nairobi, Kenya to earn the price of the sandwich.” (Haaretz)
