Wealth in the Asia-Pacific region grew faster than in other regions around the world last year, according to a new global study.
The region, excluding Japan, added 22 percent, or US$3.1 trillion, to its coffers from the end of 2007, a study conducted by US-based business advisory firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) stated.
“That was nearly double the global rate,” the report, released on Friday, said.
Latin American wealth grew second-fastest, registering a 16 percent rise.
The Asia-Pacific region’s pace of wealth growth trumped North America, which had the largest global absolute increase in wealth at US$4.6 trillion representing a 15 percent growth.
Wealth is also tipped to grow in the Asia-Pacific region at a faster rate than its global counterparts in the next four years, BCG partner Tjun Tang (鄧俊豪) said.
“We expect Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, to grow at nearly twice the global rate, raising its share of global wealth from 15 percent in 2009 to almost 20 percent in 2014,” Tang, a co-author of the report, said.
Globally, wealth increased by 11.5 percent to US$111.5 trillion dollars, just short of the year-end peak reached in 2007, with BCG projecting global wealth to grow at an average annual rate of nearly 6 percent to 2014.
North America accounted for about 40 percent of the increase in global wealth last year, reaching US$35.1 trillion dollars.
The number of millionaire households worldwide also rose almost 14 percent to 11.2 million, with Asia-Pacific countries Singapore and Malaysia leading the pack, BCG said.
“Singapore saw the highest growth in millionaire households, up 35 percent, followed by 33 percent for Malaysia, 32 percent for Slovakia and 31 percent for China,” the report stated. “In Singapore and Hong Kong, millionaire households accounted for 11.4 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively, of all households.”
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