Buying Power

According to this report, Tokyo's residents - yes, expensive Tokyo - have the most buying power. An excerpt:

"On a global average, 35 minutes of work buys a Big Mac," it said. "But the disparities are huge: in Nairobi, 1 1/2 hours' work is needed to buy the burger with the net hourly wage there. In the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami, a maximum of 13 minutes' labor is needed."

In Tokyo, it takes a mere 10 minutes. Bogota, Colombia, came in last among the 70 cities surveyed at 97 minutes.

The UBS survey, conducted every three years, rated Oslo as the most expensive city based on the cost of a basket of 122 goods and services, excluding rent. It was followed by London; Copenhagen, Denmark; Zurich, Switzerland; Tokyo; Geneva; New York; Dublin, Ireland; Stockholm, Sweden; and Helsinki, Finland.

The least expensive cities were Manila, Philippines; Delhi; Buenos Aires; Bombay and Kuala Lumpur.

UBS said that if the cost of housing was included, "life is particularly expensive in London and New York."