Three cities have been jointly named as the world's most expensive in 2019

• The Economist Intelligence Unit has named Paris, Singapore and Hong Kong as the world’s most expensive cities.
• In its annual Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, the thinktank also named the world’s cheapest cities, with Venezuelan capital Caracas coming in at the bottom of the scale.
• The survey ranks 133 cities around the world.

Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

View of Paris from La Basilique du Sacre-Coeur.

Paris, Singapore and Hong Kong have jointly been named as the world's most expensive cities in 2019.

The annual analysis, published Tuesday by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), compared the price of more than 150 items in 133 cities around the world.

Asia and Europe dominated the top of the ranking, with Swiss cities Geneva and Zurich and Danish capital Copenhagen also listed among the world's harshest places to open your wallet.

According to the EIU, Paris has been one of the ten most expensive cities since 2003. New York and Los Angeles were the only two U.S. cities to make the top ten.

Currency volatility also played a role in the ranking, making the Turkish and Russian capitals of Istanbul and Moscow more affordable. On the other hand, London climbed up the ranking as the British pound rebounded from prolonged volatility fuelled by Brexit.

Economic sanctions imposed on Russia also impacted the cost of living in its cities, with Moscow among the cities moving the most places down the scale.

Tel Aviv was the only Middle Eastern hub to be ranked among the ten most expensive cities in the world. Elsewhere in the region, Istanbul plummeted 48 places to 120th place – a result of its "uncontrollably high inflation," the EIU said.

A growing number of cities, including Syrian capital Damascus and Caracas, Venezuela, were becoming cheaper due to political instability and infrastructural issues.

"Political instability is becoming an increasingly prominent factor in lowering the relative cost of living. This means that there is a considerable element of risk in some of the world's cheapest cities," the report said. "Put simply, cheaper cities also tend to be less liveable."

Other cities becoming cheaper amid political instability included Karachi in Pakistan and Lagos, Nigeria.

Speaking to CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday, Roxana Slavcheva, the EIU's head of city practices, said most of the cities near the top of the ranking were "not very happy about" being included.