Currency rise pushes up relative living costs

The sharp rise in the New Zealand dollar has pushed up the cost of living in Auckland and Wellington, according to an international comparison by The Economist magazine.

Wellington and Auckland ranked 39th equal in this year's survey compared with 54th equal a year ago. The New Zealand cities had the biggest rises of any city in the 124 surveyed alongside Budapest in Hungary.

Tokyo remained the costliest city with an index ranking of 141 compared with 91 for the New Zealand cities. Teheran was the cheapest city with an index of 32.

Osaka Kobe was second most expensive followed by Oslo, Paris, Copenhagen, Zurich and London.

The weak US dollar saw the cost of living in New York fall 10 places to 23rd.

Sydney moved up two places to 25th while Melbourne rose 4 places to 28th, one ahead of Los Angeles.

West European cities make up 16 of the top 20 most expensive destinations with Hong Kong (12th, down from 7th) and Singapore (19th down from 17th) the other Asian cities in the top 20.

Continuing instability, both political and economic has been responsible for the falling cost of living in most of the world, The Economist said.

Mexico City on 64th was the most expensive city in Latin America.

Despite political and economic stability, Abidjan of the Cote D'Ivoire is the most expensive city in Africa in 32nd spot largely due to price volatility and a peg of its currency to the euro.

- NZPA