Tokyo Branded World's Most Expensive City

Tokyo and Osaka bumped Moscow into third place in Mercer's annual ranking of the costliest cities for expats, the Times of London reports. Geneva and Hong Kong rounded out the top five. Currency fluctuations pushed many European cities down in the influential rankings,which compare the cost of living in 143 cities, with London dropping 13 places to 16th. 

Zurich and Copenhagen came in sixth and seventh, and New York returned to the top 10 in eighth place. Beijing—one of many Chinese cities that rose sharply in the ranking—came in ninth, and Singapore tenth. The local currency's peg to the US dollar, used as the study's baseline, saw big rises for Abu Dhabi and Dubai. At the bottom end, Johannesburg replaced Asuncion as the cheapest city for expats.
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