Falling dollar gives Australia's cost of living a jolt

London, Mar 8 (ANI): According to a recent survey, the cost of living in Australia has declined significantly since September last year.

The Economist magazine, in its cost of living survey in Australia has attributed the declining trend to the falling value of the Australian dollar.

The study shows that Sydney has dropped from 17th to 35th on its index of most expensive cities in the past six months.

Since September, Melbourne has fallen 15 places from 24 to 39, Brisbane from 35 to 57, while Adelaide dropped to 72 after being listed at 48 in the last survey.

Auckland fell almost 30 places, from 49 to 78, while Wellington dropped 25 spots from 55 to 80.

The News.com.au has reported that a stronger Yen has made Tokyo rise to top of the magazine's list of most expensive cities, knocking off Oslo in Norway, which fell to number five.

Osaka in Japan was listed at number two, Paris third, while Copenhagen in Denmark was fourth.

Apart from taking the top two spots, Asia boasted four of the five cheapest cities - Karachi in Pakistan, Mumbai and New Delhi in India, and Kathmandu in Nepal.

"(Asia) plays host to countries with the most and the least expensive cost of living in the survey, " The Economist said adding that it supplies five of the ten cheapest locations in the survey, four of which hail from the Indian subcontinent."

"Cities in Australia and New Zealand have seen dramatic falls of between 21 and 25 index points.... Conversely, a stronger Yen now means that the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka have become the most expensive cities in our survey," the newspaper said.(ANI)