Meanwhile Ho Chi Minh City placed 43^rd in Asia and 224^th in the world, according to a cost-of-living survey conducted by ECA International, the world’s leader in the development and provision of solutions for the management and assignment of employees around the world.

Tokyo is the most expensive city in Asia, followed by Nagoya, Yokahama and Kobe (Japan), Seoul (the Republic of Korea), Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong (China), and Busan (the RoK).

Singapore overtook Hong Kong jumping from 8^th last year to 6^th this year in the list, because the Singapore dollar is increasingly stronger against other currencies in the world and average prices of goods and services rose by 5.7 percent.

The last city on the list in Asia is Karachi, southern Pakistan.

According to the survey, four other ASEAN cities are more expensive than Hanoi: Jakarta (15^th), Kuala Lumpur (30^th), Metro-Manila (32^nd) and Vientiane (33^rd).

ECA International reported that prices of oil, food and other products have increased significantly around the world over the past 12 months.

The world’s top ten most expensive cities in 2011 are in Japan, Norway and Switzerland.