Monday, June 28, 2010

Has Swelling Numbers of Asian Millionaires Been Symptomatic of Wealth Transfer?

We’ve been talking about wealth transfer, i.e. from the West to the East. And perhaps, this could be a sign. A report says, Asian's have nearly caught up with the west in the race of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI).

According to Bloomberg,

``The number of individuals with at least $1 million of investable assets in Asia-Pacific rose 26 percent to 3 million in 2009, matching Europe and almost overhauling North America’s 3.1 million, according to the 14th annual World Wealth Report published yesterday.

``Asia “continues to lead the global economic recovery and this has benefited many of the markets in the region in terms of both growth and wealth creation,” Ong Yeng Fang, market managing director for Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, said at a conference in Singapore today. Given Europe’s debt crisis, “there is a very high possibility that their numbers will be surpassed.”


To add, the Capgemini-Merrill report says: (bold highlights mine, graphs from Capgemini)

-The Asia-Pacific HNWI population rose 25.8% overall to 3.0 million, catching up with Europe for the first time, after falling 14.2% in 2008. Seven countries within the region actually saw their HNWI populations recover beyond 2007 levels.



-Asia-Pacific HNWI wealth surged 30.9% to US$9.7 trillion, more than erasing 2008 losses and surpassing the US$9.5 trillion in wealth held by Europe’s HNWIs.

-After falling 19.0% in 2008, the HNWI population in North America rebounded, gaining 16.6% in 2009. HNWI wealth there rose 17.8% to US$10.7 trillion. North America remains the single largest home to HNWIs, with its 3.1 million HNWIs accounting for 31% of the global HNWI population

For us, the reason Asia has been fast catching up with the west is that she has been engaged in less relative inflationism, which has been embraced by the west as the orthodoxy. But of course, everything is fluid or subject to change.

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