For the first year since 1997, Hong Kong, the perennial salary squelcher, is not among the five most expensive cities to live in on the planet. In the latest edition of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the special administrative region has dipped from six consecutive top five finishes to twelfth.
In the group's bi-annual report, Japanese megalopolises Tokyo and Osaka retained their titles as the cities with the highest costs of living on the planet, fending off a sizable list of increasingly pricey European cities that include Paris, Oslo, Copenhagen and Reykjavik.
Although spiraling down seven places from the fifth...
