The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has just released a very interesting report – “Global Wealth 2014: Riding A Wave of Growth”, which tells us the state of private wealth creation in different countries of the world.
As per the report, by 2018, India will become the fastest growing nation in terms of private wealth creation with 129% increment in its rankings.
The report states that private wealth in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan)region grew by 30.5% in 2013 to $37 trillion, which was mainly driven by higher rate of growth in India and China. GDP growth in India was calculated at 14.2% meanwhile China’s GDP grew at 9.6%.
Besides these, both of these nations are traditionally inclined towards savings, which also contributed to this overall growth. Savings rate in India was 19.2% of the GDP, again among the highest in the world.
If compared globally, private wealth creation in Asia pacific region (excluding Japan) represented maximum growth rate in the whole world.
India has now 175,000 millionaire households, which is 16th highest in the whole world.
Surprisingly, the number of ultra high-net worth households ($100 million+) is more in India compared to millionaire households! In 2013, there are 284,000 households which have total assets of more than $100 million, which makes us 13th ranked nation in this metrics.
However, North America and Europe are still the wealthiest nations of the world, and in 2013, their combined private wealth increased by double digits as well.
Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA)and Latin America also had a healthy growth in 2013 but Western Europe and Japan slowed down their growth in private wealth creation.
13 Interesting Global Wealth Insights
- Global private wealth grew by 14.6% in 2013 to reach a total of $152 trillion. This growth in 2013 is stronger than 2012 when it grew by 8.7%.
- In 2013, private wealth held all over the world rose by $19.3 trillion, which is almost double of 2012 growth
- Private wealth in North America stood at $50.3 trillion, making them the wealthiest regions of the world. Closely following is Western Europe with $37.9 trillion private wealth
- Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) holds $37 trillion private wealth, representing maximum growth rate in the whole world
- In 2008, Asia Pacific region had 50% less private wealth compared to North America, a gap which is closing very fast
- By 2018, North America will become 2nd highest wealth creator with $59.2 trillion of wealth, whereas Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) will become the wealthiest region of the world with $61 trillion. Western Europe with $44.6 trillion in 2018 will be at #3
- Total number of millionaire households all over the world increased to 16.3 million, representing an increase of 1.1% compared to 2012
- US has the maximum millionaires in the whole world (7.1 million millionaire households)
- US also has the maximum number of new millionaires (1.1 new millionaire households in 2013)
- China with 2.4 million millionaire households has surpassed Japan for the first time in history
- In Japan, the number of millionaire households decreased to 1.2 million from 1.5 million last year
- Highest density of millionaires in the world is at Qatar where 175 out of 1000 households are millionaires, followed by Switzerland (127 out of 1000) and Singapore (100 out of 1000)
- Hong Kong has the highest density of billionaires (15.3 per million) followed by Switzerland (8.5 per million)
Which factors are driving wealth creations?
The report specifically mentions three factors which are contributing to this burgeoning private wealth creation all over the world:
a) Strong and better performance of equity markets all over the world
b) Stronger and rapidly growing economies (especially in Asia and Middle East)
c) Better returns on existing assets (properties, gold and bonds)
You can access the full BCG report here.