London no longer in top ten most expensive cities

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In 2008, London was ranked as the eighth most expensive city in the world, but with the drop in the value of the pound against the euro, the capital has fallen this year to be 27th on the list.

According to the latest survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which compared the cost of living in numerous cities worldwide from September 2008 to February 2009, London dropped below New York for the first time in seven years.

The pound has continued to weaken against the euro, and is now down to 91.85p, meaning that it takes 91.85p to buy one euro.

The editor of the report, Jon Copestake, said: “Two factors drive the relative cost of living: local prices and exchange rates. Normally our ranking of cities by cost of living is relatively stable, but in the current global climate changes in exchange rates have significantly altered our assessment of the most and least expensive cities.”

Western Europe remains the world’s most expensive region, the report showed, with living costs similar those in New York, on average.

The cities in Western Europe with the lowest cost of living include Reykjavik, which ranked 67th, and Manchester, which ranked 70th, the report indicated.

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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