The report, entitled Hot Spots, ranks the most competitive cities in the world for their demonstrated ability to attract capital, business, talent and tourists.

The 10 most competitive cities in the world are: New York (1st), London (2nd), Singapore (3rd), Paris and Hong Kong (joint 4th), Tokyo, (6th), Zurich (7th), Washington, DC (8th), Chicago (9th), and Boston (10th).

“New York has been home to Citi since our founding 200 years ago. Our commitment to this city, and its continued competitiveness, are as strong as ever,” said Citi CEO Vikram Pandit.

With a combined population of about 750 million, the 120 cities ranked in Hot Spots represent approximately 29 percent of the global economy and generated a combined GDP of $20.24 trillion in 2011.

According to the report, the ten most competitive cities in the US are: New York (1st), Washington, DC (8th), Chicago (9th), Boston (10th), San Francisco (joint 13th), Los Angeles (19th), Houston (joint 23rd), Dallas (joint 25th), Seattle (29th) and Philadelphia (30th).

For Hot Spots, the EIU developed a “Global City Competitiveness Index” that measures cities across eight distinct categories of competitiveness and 31 individual indicators. Categories include economic strength, human capital, institutional effectiveness, financial maturity, global appeal, physical capital, social and cultural character and environment and natural hazards. A city’s overall ranking in the benchmark Index is a weighted score of the underlying categories.