Hong Kong has taken over from Tokyo as the world's most expensive city， according to a lifestyle survey which also reveals the gap between the costliest and cheapest cities is narrowing. Moscow muscles at second place in the survey， released by Mercer Human Resource Consulting， with Tokyo third. At the other end of the scale， Johannesburg replaced Blantyre， Malawi as the cheapest city on the planet.

根據(jù)一項(xiàng)生活方式調(diào)查顯示，香港已經(jīng)取代東京坐上了世界上最昂貴城市的交椅，該調(diào)查同時(shí)顯示生活成本最昂貴城市與最低廉城市之間的差距正在縮小。根據(jù)默瑟人力資源咨詢公司公布的調(diào)查，莫斯科擠到了第二位，東京則位居第三。在標(biāo)尺的另一端，約翰內(nèi)斯堡取代馬拉維的布蘭太爾而成了地球上最低廉的城市。

The research took New York as the base city with a nominal score of 100 points. Hong Kong scored 124.2; the South African metropolis just 34.4. It measured the comparative cost of over 200 items such as housing， food， clothing and household goods as well as transport and entert－

ainment in 144 cities worldwide. St.Petersburg in Russia and London were the two most expensive cities in Europe， while in the United States， New York was far and away the costliest city， followed by Los Angeles， Chicago and San Francisco. Elsewhere，Buenos Aires had the most dramatic fall， plunging from 23rd to 133rd following Argentina's economic crisis and devaluation of the peso. New Zealand and Australian cities continued to show they are probably the best bet for cheap but high quality living， with scores consistently around 50 or below.

此次調(diào)查以紐約為基準(zhǔn)城市，基準(zhǔn)分為100分。香港得分為124.2，而南非首都只有34.4。調(diào)查計(jì)算了全球144個(gè)城市超過(guò)200種項(xiàng)目的比較成本，包括住房、食品、服裝、日用品、交通及娛樂(lè)等等。歐洲最昂貴的城市是俄羅斯的圣彼得堡和倫敦，美國(guó)最昂貴的城市當(dāng)然是紐約，其次是洛杉磯、芝加哥和舊金山。在其他地方，布宜諾斯艾利斯的排名發(fā)生了最為戲劇性的下跌：在阿根廷經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)及比索貶值之后，它從第23位猛跌到了第133位。新西蘭和澳大利亞各城市的表現(xiàn)依舊良好，這表明它們可能是追求高質(zhì)量低成本生活的人們的最佳選擇：它們的得分仍舊在50左右或更低。

◆編輯：夏天兒