London tops as most attractive global city

London has topped as the most attractive global city in a new survey.

Paris has fallen five notches behind London in terms of overall attractiveness, according to a survey published on Tuesday which put the British capital top the index for the first time.

The French capital, which battles with its rival across the Channel to attract capital and tourists, dropped two places in the PricewaterhouseCoopers ranking, to come in sixth out of 30 global cities, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

London meanwhile climbed two places to knock New York off the top spot.

The two cities are also moving in opposite directions in the narrower category of economic power - two notches up for London, two down for Paris, according to the annual survey, which is based on studies by the International Monetary Fund and other international groups as well as a survey of PwC staff.

New York was ranked as the world's second-most attractive city and Singapore came in third, followed by Toronto and San Francisco.

Australia's most populated city did out rank overall winner London, when it came to demographics and liveability. Sydney came in first by a small margin in this quality-of-life section which rounds up the survey.