Accra -Africa's Most Expensive City?

Moscow wins again, with London as runner up
According to CNNMoney.com, Ghana's capital, Accra, has been designated as Africa's most expensive city and ranks No. 76 worldwide.

However, a check of the Mercer Human Resource Consulting's site - the firm that conducted the original survey - indicates Douala, Cameroon tops with a rank of 24.

In 2005, Ghana was 91^st in the world and sixth in Africa

Moscow is the world's most expensive for the second year in a row.

London came in second on the survey, moving up three spots from 2006, while Seoul, South Korea lowered to a notch to third place and Tokyo gained fourth.

For the fifth straight year, Asuncion, Paraguay is the least expensive city in terms of cost of living.

The survey includes 143 cities across six continents, keeping track of costs of more than 200 items in each city. Some of the measures include housing, clothing, transport, food, and household goods and entertainment.

Using the cost of living in New York as a base, Mercer determined Moscow is 34.4 percent more expensive after taking into account the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

A luxury two-bedroom in Moscow now rents for $4,000 a month; a CD costs $24.83, and an international newspaper, $6.30, according to Mercer. By comparison, a fast food meal with a burger is a steal at $4.80.

Among North American cities, New York and Los Angeles are the most expensive and are the only two to rank in the top 50 of the world's most expensive cities. But both have fallen in their rankings since last year's survey -- New York came in 15th, down from 10th place, while Los Angeles fell to 42nd from 29th place a year ago. San Francisco came in a distant third at No. 54, down 20 places from a year earlier.

Toronto, meanwhile, ranks as Canada's most expensive city but fell 35 places to take 82nd place worldwide.

In Latin America, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are still the most expensive cities, coming in at Nos. 62 and 64 worldwide. In Australasia, Sydney is the priciest place to live and ranks No. 21 worldwide. In the Middle East, Tel Aviv takes the cake, coming in at No. 17 globally.

World's most expensive cities 2007 1. Moscow 2. London 3. Seoul 4. Tokyo 5. Hong Kong 6. Copenhagen 7. Geneva 8. Osaka 9. Zurich 10. Oslo 11. Milan 12. St. Petersburg 13. Paris 14. Singapore 15. New York City 16. Dublin 17. Tel Aviv 18. Rome 19. Vienna 20. Beijing