A new survey says Zurich has claimed the dubious honor of becoming the world's most expensive city.

Zurich ranked fourth a year ago, but the Economist Intelligence Unit said Wednesday in its latest cost-of-living report that the Swiss city has surpassed Tokyo and moved to the top for the first time in at least two decades. The report said the strength of the Swiss franc in the past year had made consumer goods more expensive in Zurich compared to elsewhere.

The study tracks the cost of goods and services in major cities around the globe, including such items as food, transportation, utilities, private schools and domestic help. Using the cost of living in New York as the basic barometer, the report found that it costs 70 percent more in Zurich and 66 percent more in Tokyo. New York dropped 11 spots to rank at 47th along with another American city, Chicago, with both of them behind a third U.S. city, Los Angeles.

The survey said another Swiss city, Geneva, and the Japanese city of Osaka tied as the third most expensive places to live.

Rounding out the top 10 in the 131-city survey were Oslo, Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and Frankfurt.

The report said the world's least expensive cities are Karachi, Mumbai, Tehran, New Delhi, Jeddah and Panama City.