Dublin the world's 16th most expensive city, survey finds

Dublin is the 16th most expensive city in the world and a more expensive place to buy a cup of coffee than London, Paris or New York, the annual Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living survey has revealed.

The city has climbed two places in the rankings since last year and is now sandwiched between New York and Tel Aviv in the Mercer rankings. Dublin is the 10th most expensive city in Europe.

The cost of a cup of coffee, including service, was found to be €3 in Dublin, compared with €2.95 in London, €2.85 in New York and €2.30 in Paris.

For the second consecutive year, Moscow was judged to be the most expensive city for expatriate workers to live in, as a result of high accommodation costs and the appreciation of the rouble against the US dollar.

London climbed three spots in the rankings to second place, with Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong making up the rest of the top five. Asunción in Paraguay remained the cheapest city surveyed.

The gap however between the world's most and expensive cities appears to be narrowing, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

The weakening of the US dollar and the strengthening of the euro were responsible for several US cities dropping sharply and many European cities climbing in the rankings, said Rebecca Powers, a senior consultant at Mercer. This marked a reversal of last year's trend, when a strengthening dollar made US cities more expensive.

The currency fluctuations left only New York in the top 40, and it dropped five places to 15th. The next most expensive US city was Los Angeles, which fell from 29th to 42nd place.

Apart from Dublin and London, other European cities to become relatively more expensive compared to the 2006 survey included Copenhagen, Milan, Paris and Rome, while further down the list there were significant jumps for Stockholm, Amsterdam, Madrid, Athens, Barcelona, Glasgow and Munich.

"Executive" rents in the Irish capital were lower than in many major cities. The monthly cost of renting a luxury two-bedroom unfurnished apartment was found to be €1,200 in Dublin, compared to more than €3,000 in Moscow and New York, almost €3,000 in London and €2,000 in Paris.

Dublin though proved to be a costly place compared to many other cities for items such as music CDs and fast food hamburger meals, based on purchases made by Mercer's researchers at medium-priced outlets.

The European cities which were judged to be more expensive overall than Dublin were Moscow, London, Copenhagen, Geneva, Zurich, Oslo, Milan, St Petersburg and Paris.

Mercer conducts the survey of 143 cities to help multinational companies and governments calculate the cost of employing people in different locations and fix compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

Cities were scored against New York, which was given a benchmark index score of 100.

Dublin was ranked 27th in the world and eighth in the EU for quality of life, in a survey published earlier this year by Mercer.

How Ireland's capital compares: the seven-city test

Cup of coffee (including service)

Dublin €3.00

London €2.95

Paris €2.30

New York €2.85

Beijing €3.42

Sydney €2.08

Moscow €4.64

Fast food hamburger meal

Dublin €6.50

London €5.74

Paris €6.20

New York €4.33

Beijing €2.01

Sydney €3.84

Moscow €3.65

Bus or subway ride

Dublin €1.51

London €4.43

Paris €1.40

New York €1.52

Beijing -

Sydney €1.49

Moscow -

Music CD

Dublin €20.00

London €19.18

Paris €16.99

New York €13.23

Beijing €16.67

Sydney €14.84

Moscow €18.85

International daily newspaper

Dublin €2.10

London €1.77

Paris €2.20

New York €1.24

Beijing €3.04

Sydney €2.67

Moscow €4.78

Rent of two-bedroom luxury unfurnished apartment

Dublin €1,200

London €2,952

Paris €2,000

New York €3,037

Beijing €2,156

Sydney €1,547

Moscow €3,037