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Paris and Zurich have joined Hong Kong to become the costliest cities in the world as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the prices of everyday items, Euronews reports.

The French capital and Swiss city leapfrogged over Singapore and Osaka to claim a joint first place with Hong Kong in the latest Cost of Living Index from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The index compared the prices of 138 goods and services from some 130 cities in September 2020 and found that prices on average grew 0.3 per cent over the past year.

Overall, cities in the Americas, Africa and Eastern Europe have become less expensive while those in Western Europe have become costlier. This is partly explained to the rise of European currencies against the US dollar.

Tehran, Perth and Guangzhou were the biggest climbers in the index compared to last year but remain at the 79th and a joint 62nd place respectively.

In the case of the Iranian capital, which jumped 27 places year-on-year, prices were impacted by US sanctions which have impacted by the supply of goods.

The cities with the lowest cost of living are Syria's Damascus, Uzbekistan's Tashkent, Zambia's Lusaka and the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

The EIU expects price trends to remain similar in 2021 as the global economy is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022.