Total wealth in the nation increased by US$387 billion from January last year to June this year and Taiwan is among the largest contributors of global wealth growth, a Western bank said on Wednesday.
Average wealth in Taiwan is US$161,000, well above that of even the most successful developing and transitional countries, and it approaches that of some countries in Western Europe, the Credit Suisse Research Institute said.
In its second Global Wealth Report, the institute said that compared with the rest of the world, wealth distribution in Taiwan is skewed toward the high end, with 43.5 percent of adults owning between US$10,000 and US$100,000, double the world average, and 31.5 percent of adults owning more than US$100,000, three times the global average.
The number of millionaires in Taiwan is expected to increase from 343,000 this year to 503,000 in 2016, a 47 percent growth rate, the institute said.
The Asia-Pacific region has emerged as the key contributor of global wealth growth, accounting for 36 percent of all global wealth creation since 2000 and 54 percent since January last year.
Total global wealth has increased 14 percent from US$203 trillion in January last year to US$231 trillion in June this year.
Emerging markets remain the main wealth growth engine, with the fastest growth seen in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
In the next five years, global wealth is expected to rise by 50 percent to US$345 trillion and wealth per adult to increase 40 percent to reach US$70,700, led by growth in emerging markets.
Osama Abbasi, chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific at Credit Suisse, said the Global Wealth Report reconfirms again that these are times of unprecedented economic change and a radical reconfiguration of the world’s economic order is taking shape.
The report, which analyzed the wealth distribution of all the 4.5 billion adults in the world in more than 200 countries, showed that the US stood out as the largest wealth generator in the world over the 18 months, adding US$4.6 trillion to global wealth.
The Asia-Pacific region was the main contributor to the rise in global wealth during the period, with China, Japan, Australia and India among the top six contributors to global wealth accumulation.
Total household wealth in the region increased 23 percent from US$61 trillion in January last year to US$75 trillion in June this year.
That sharply contrasted with the 9.2 percent and 4.8 percent total wealth growth in North America and Europe over the same period respectively, reflective of the global trend of the continued shift of economic power from the developed world to emerging economies.
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