KUALA LUMPUR - If you're thinking of moving to Singapore, make sure you have a fat wallet. The island nation has been ranked the 10th most expensive city in the world for expatriates, beating traditional picks like London, Paris and even Dubai.

The 2009 Global Cost of Living survey by Mercer found that even with a relative drop in cost of living in Singapore, it went up the rankings because other cities suffered more drastic falls in living costs.

Kuala Lumpur stayed on the cheaper side, sitting at 96th place out of 143 cities studied.

Bangkok (98) and Jakarta (106) are not very far behind, while Manila is the cheapest of Asean cities, ranking 126th.

Fast-developing Vietnam holds two rather pricey locales, with Hanoi coming in at 58th followed by Ho Chih Minh City at 69th place.

On the global level, Asian cities appear to get harder on the wallet by the year with two Japanese cities taking the top two spots.

Tokyo is now the most expensive city in the world, bearing the costly distinction of being the only city to breach 140 points on the cost of living index.

Osaka, while not nearly as expensive as Japan's capital, holds second place ahead of third-placed Moscow, which was the most expensive city in 2008.

Mercer senior researcher Nathalie Constantin-Metral said there was a "significant reshuffle" of cities on the ranking due to currency fluctuations around the world.

"As a direct impact of the economic downturn over the last year, we have observed significant fluctuations in most of the world's currencies, which have had a profound impact on this year's rankings," she said.