The numbers and fortunes of Taiwan's wealthy increased quickly last year from the previous year, driven by solid economic growth and strong stock market in the period, a report released yesterday by Merrill Lynch showed.
At the end of last year, there were 66,000 high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in Taiwan -- people with more than US$1 million in net assets, excluding their primary residence -- up 11.9 percent from 2005, the 2007 Asia-Pacific Wealth Report showed.
The report, published by Merrill Lynch and consultancy company Capgemini, said that of those 66,000, about 490 were ultra-HNWIs with more than US$30 million in financial assets apiece.
"Taiwan's economy expanded at a faster pace last year, led by a growth in exports and a strong stock market performance, which drove the double-digit increase in the number of HNWIs," Francis Liu (劉昌欣), Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management Market director for Greater China, told a press conference in Taipei.
Taiwan's GDP growth was 4.62 percent last year, while the Taiwan Stock Exchange posted market capitalization gains of 24.9 percent.
The value of the HNWIs' financial assets also rose 15.8 percent to US$220 million last year, bringing the average net worth to US$3.3 million, in line with the average in the Asia-Pacific region, the report said.
"This shows that the wealth generated by Taiwan's wealthy population still has room to grow," Liu said.
Merrill Lynch recently raised its GDP forecast for Taiwan for next year to 5 percent from 4.2 percent, based on robust exports and healthy domestic economic outlook.
Forty-three percent of Taiwan's HNWIs are women, the highest in the region.
Women make up 38 percent of the HNWIs in China, 34 percent in Hong Kong and 27 percent in Japan, the report showed.
The figure reflects the high proportion of Taiwanese female entrepreneurs and an increasing number of women taking over their family businesses, Merrill Lynch Taiwan Ltd president Sophia Cheng (程淑芬) said.
From 2005 to last year, the number of millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region grew 8.6 percent to 2.6 million, who collectively generated US$8.4 trillion, up 10.5 percent last year, the report said.
While Japan is home to more than 1.48 million rich people, the highest growth rate in the number of HNWIs was 21.2 percent in Singapore, followed by 20.5 percent in India and 16 percent in Indonesia, the report said.
The assets of these Asian millionaires were spread around, with 30 percent in real estate, 25 percent in stocks, 22 percent in deposits and cash, and 15 percent in fixed-income investments, the report said.
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