THE RANKS of millionaires in Asia for the first time surpassed Europe and in a few years are expected to overtake the US, according to the latest annual Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report.
Powered by fast-growing China and India, the Asia-Pacific region’s millionaire ranks rose 10 per cent to 3.3 million, second only to the 3.4 million residing in North America and inching ahead of Europe, which had 3.1 million.
Asia’s combined wealth, up 12 per cent to $10.8 trillion last year, surpassed Europe and threatens to overtake the US and Canada, where wealth rose 9 per cent to $11.6 trillion.
“Their capital markets may be emerging, but their economies have clearly arrived,’ John Thiel, head of Merrill’s private banking group and its “Thundering Herd’ of 15,700 US brokers, told reporters. “They’re not ‘emerging’ anymore."
More than half of the world’s millionaires are still found in the US, Japan and Germany, but that the wealthy are spread among more countries, according to Merrill and global consulting firm Capgemini.
Assets held by millionaires worldwide rose by 9.7 per cent to a record $42.7 trillion – surpassing the previous high-water mark set in 2007 – while the ranks of people with at least $1 million of investable assets, excluding their primary residence, rose 8.3 per cent to 10.9 million, the report found.
Some of that growth came as manufacturing, exports and domestic growth helped places like Hong Kong, Singapore and India create legions of members for the millionaires’ club.
The findings echo a PricewaterhouseCoopers report published on Monday (June 20), which found that Singapore and Hong Kong could surpass London and Switzerland as the world’s top wealth management hub by 2013.
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