The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked Singapore as the priciest ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong, Geneva and Paris.
The EIU also said India and Pakistan accounted for five of the 10 least expensive cities in the world.
London was sixth and New York seventh on the list that compares the cost of a basket of goods across 133 cities, 'BBC News' reported.
The cheapest were Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, followed by Bangalore and Mumbai, the EIU said.
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Although Singapore was the most expensive, the cost of living there was 10 per cent cheaper when compared to New York than was the case in the EIU survey a year ago.
As cities coped with economic factors ranging from the strength of the US dollar and currency devaluations to falling oil and commodity prices and geopolitical uncertainty, there was a considerable movement in the rankings, researchers said.
"In nearly 17 years of working on this survey I cannot recall a year as volatile as 2015," said Jon Copestake, an editor of the survey.