Dublin is 26th most expensive city

Dublin has fallen from being the 10th most expensive city in the world to the 26th, according to an international cost of living study.

The survey of 72 cities by Swiss bank UBS examined the price of a basket of 122 goods and services, adjusted for currency fluctuations.

It ranked Oslo as the most expensive city on the globe, ahead of Zurich and Tokyo while the cheapest places to live were Delhi and Mumbai.

In terms of average gross earnings, Dublin was ranked 22nd, again behind Oslo, Zurich and Tokyo but ahead of cities like Toronto, Milan, Barcelona and Hong Kong.

In the previous city-comparison survey of 2009, Dublin had the 10th highest average earnings.

The survey found the average hourly wage in the Irish capital was €15.30 ($19.80), after taxes and social security contributions, compared to with €14.30 in 2009.

Dublin workers paid an average of 21 per cent in tax and social welfare contributions, compared to an average of 27.9 per in Western Europe, 26.5 per cent in North America and 24.3 per cent in Eastern Europe.

Dublin had the 8th highest domestic purchasing power behind Zurich, Sydney and Luxembourg but ahead of cities like New York, London and Toyko.

In Toyko, it takes just nine minutes of work to earn enough to buy a Big Mac while in Nairobi it takes 84 minutes.

Workers have to toil 42 minutes in Istanbul and 29 minutes in Shanghai for a Big Mac, while in Dublin just 14 minutes were required.

Workers in Zurich have enough to buy an iPhone 4S after just 22 hours work; in Manila, by contrast, it takes 435 hours or 20 times longer. It takes Dublin workers 39 hours.

The survey also looked at working hours and found the shortest were in Paris, Lyon and Copenhagen. Workers in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America toil the longest, at over 2,000 hours per year, it found.