Global wealth is expected to go up by as much as 40 percent in the next five years and China is set to account for more than 50 percent of the increase in emerging markets, Switzerland-based multinational financial services holding company Credit Suisse reported.
The Swiss firm said current global wealth reached US$241 trillion after going up by 4.9 per cent from last year’s total. The United State is expected to remain the global leader in aggregate wealth during the five-year period while China's wealth is forecast to hit a level approximate to the US's wealth level in 1993.
Over the past year, household wealth registered the greatest percentage of increase in the United States and Canada with an increase of 11.9 percent. Europe and India reported the next improvements in household wealth after increasing 7.7 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. China registered an increase of 6.7 percent.
Base on the projections of global wealth data provider WealthInsight, there were approximately 1.4 million millionaires in the country last year, with a combined wealth of US$3.8 trillion. The average wealth of China’s millionaires is pegged at US$2.6 million.
The number of China’s millionaires is expected to increase by 34 per cent in 2017 to hit a total of 2.4 million. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese worth a t least US$1 billion has reached 315 this year, the Hurun Report said. Wang Jianlin is ranked No. 1 for the first time on Hurun's annual list of Chinese tycoons.
A separate study conducted by Boston Consulting Group showed that the country will become the world’s second-wealthiest nation in 2017, overtaking Japan. China, the study said will have more millionaire households than its Asian neighbors. The US will continue to be on top of the list.