Tokyo Stays at Top of List of Most-Expensive Cities

Tokyo remains the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, but the decline of the dollar against other major currencies has brought some significant changes in the rankings this year, according to a survey published Monday.

With an index figure of 189 against New York’s 100, Tokyo topped the list in the survey of executive living costs in 100 cities compiled by Business International, a Geneva-based consulting firm. In April, Tokyo’s figure had stood at 155.

The Venezuelan capital of Caracas was listed last with an index figure of 39.

The survey is intended to help multinational companies determine the cost-of-living differentials paid to expatriate executives. It is based on a weighted index, taking into account food, household supplies, recreation, transportation and other selected items but not housing.

The survey was based on data available in the last week of July. Timothy Wolfe, Business International’s product manager, said the rankings evidently had changed further since then because of the dollar’s continued weakening.

In the past year, the dollar has fallen by about 40% against the Japanese yen and more than 30% against some other key currencies.

The newly included Japanese city of Osaka was second with 183 index points. Tehran, the capital of Iran, was third with 164.

The other top 10 cities were: Libreville, Gabon, fourth, with 148; Brazzaville, Congo, fifth, with 145; Dakar, Senegal, and Douala, Cameroon, tied for sixth, with 131; Abidjan, Ivory Coast, eighth, with 124.

Lagos, Nigeria, dropped to ninth place, at 123, after having ranked third in the April survey.

Geneva placed 10th, replacing Oslo as Europe’s most expensive city, with 117 index points.

San Francisco fell from ninth place to 19th, tied with New York, while Chicago was 26th at 98.