China’s US dollar millionaires have increased steadily to more than 1 million, according to an independent publisher, despite a corruption crackdown and austerity program launched by the government.
The number of millionaires in China rose 3.8 percent from last year to 1.09 million, according to the Hurun Report, a China-based publisher of luxury magazines and compiler of an annual list of the country’s richest people.
The number of “super-rich,” which is defined as those people with personal wealth of at least 100 million yuan (US$16 million) rose 3.7 percent to 67,000, it said.
“Although we have been seeing a slowdown in spending, the money is still very much there,” Hurun Report founder Rupert Hoogewerf said on Thursday.
After Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) took over as head of the Chinese Communist Party at the end of 2012, he launched a government austerity campaign and anti-corruption drive which has hit the market for luxury products especially hard.
Beijing still has the biggest number of wealthy with 192,000 millionaires and 11,300 super-rich, the Hurun Wealth Report 2014 said.
Guangdong Province and Shanghai follow in both categories.
The report, the sixth annual one by the Hurun Research Institute, forecast the number of millionaires in China could reach 1.21 million and the super-rich may rise to 73,000 in the next three years.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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