Tokyo has been polled the world’s most expensive city in the latest report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research firm and publishing house. The Japanese city resumes its place, which it has repeatedly occupied since 1992, pushing last year’s chart-topper, Zurich, down the scale to number seven.

Despite Japan’s deflation and a weaker yen, Osaka also proved to be a contender for the top spot, settling for second place.

According to the Worldwide Cost Of Living 2013 report by the EIU, Asian cities make up 11 of the world’s 20 most expensive compared with eight from Europe. Singapore and Hong Kong, both wealth management centres, came fourth and fourteenth, respectively. While the surveyed costs included rent, house prices were not accounted for, which presumably would have boosted Hong Kong up a few notches, considering it is one of the world’s most expensive cities in which to buy real estate, mainly due to supply shortages.

Ten years ago there were no Australian names among the 50 most expensive cities. However, thanks to economic growth and inflation pushing up prices, such cities continue to creep up the scale - this edition of the report saw Sydney and Melbourne in third and fourth (tied with Oslo, Norway) place, respectively.

While Asia’s wealth is certainly growing, the region is also home to six of the ten cheapest cities. Within Asia it is also possible to drill down to the geographic area offering the lowest prices, the report said -  five of the bottom ten (and six of the bottom eleven) cities hail from the Indian subcontinent (defined as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka).

Mumbai and Karachi are the joint cheapest locations in the survey. Although India is something of a tiger economy tipped for future growth, much of this is driven by its large population and the untapped potential within the economy, according to the EIU.