China sees wealthy population jump 30%

By Jane Chen | June 23, 2010, Wednesday |

Online Edition

CHINA has seen the largest increase of rich people – those with assets over US$1 million - with 477,000 classed as wealthy last year, a jump of 31 percent over the year.

The robust growth, the fastest globally, helped China overpass Britain as the world's fourth-largest home to rich people and lead Asia to exceed Europe in total wealth, according to the Merrill Lynch - Capgemini 2009 World Wealth Report published today.

Merrill Lynch & Co and Capgemini Global Financial Services, Europe's largest consulting firm, publish the global wealth report every two years. This year's report consulted more than 1,100 investors and 23 firms from more than 70 countries.

In the 2009 report, the United States still tops the list with 2.87 million rich people, followed by Japan's 1.65 million and Germany's 860,000. China ranked fourth with 477,000.

The report indicated that global finance recovered last year. Rich people's assets grew by 19 percent, nearly recovering the 20 percent slump in the 2008 global slowdown when total wealth shrank to US$32.8 trillion.

In Asia, the population of rich people has increased to 3 million, nearly on a par with Europe, but their total wealth of US$9.7 trillion already exceeds their European peers.

China, along with France, Japan, Britain and Germany, led global spending last year, helping to boost consumption confidence.

It also contributed a lot to the 49 percent growth in the global luxury market varying from private airplanes to limousines and luxury housing.

The report attributed China's fast wealth growth to the government's economic measures, which generated a growth of 8.7 percent last year in gross domestic product.

Its fast growth was also seen in the arts market which rose 25 percent to US$830 million.

Most Chinese rich people are from six sectors: finance, real estate, information technology, commercial service, manufacturing and energy, according to assistant professor Lan Qingxin of the University of International Business and Economics.

He linked the wealth growth to China's blooming securities markets.

Despite the fast growth, he pointed out that the proportion of China's rich people is low at 0.037 percent, compared with 1 percent in the United States. He blamed China's huge population for the low rate.

Swiss has a highest ratio of rich people, with 35 out of every 1,000 people owning more than US$1 million, according to the 2009 report.

Nation

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China sees wealthy population jump 30%

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