Surprisingly, I would say, Bucharest is the least expensive European city in 103rd place in the 2005 worldwide cost of living survey released a couple of days ago by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Mercer’s survey covers 144 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

Tokyo remains the world’s most expensive city, followed by Osaka, according to the study. London moves down one position in the rankings to take third place, followed by Moscow which also drops a place this year. Asuncion in Paraguay is the least expensive city in the survey. New York remains the most expensive city in North America, at 13th position in the rankings .