Asia’s leading wealth managers, who have combined assets under management (AUM) of more than US$3 trillion, are bullish on the global economic outlook this year, according to a survey released yesterday.
The survey, conducted by financial services provider Barclays, found that 96 percent of the region’s wealth managers expect China to be able to avoid a hard landing, and that 68 percent expect an economic growth rate of between 6 percent and 8 percent for the Asian giant.
Consistent with last year’s results, 54 percent of the respondents expect China’s AUM growth rate to remain above 15 percent, the survey found. However, Indonesia has overtaken India to be the country with the second-highest AUM growth expectations, with 36 percent of wealth mangers expecting it go grow at a rate of 15 percent or higher.
The long-term trend of wealth accumulation in Asia is expected to continue, with nearly 90 percent of respondents expecting the number of millionaires in Asia to grow by at least 6 percent this year.
Citing the results of the survey, Philippe El-Asmar, head of Barclays’ Distribution for Asia Pacific, expressed optimism for the recovery of the global economy.
“It is encouraging to see high hopes from AUM growth rates and confidence in the China, Indonesia and India stories,” El-Asmar said.
The survey was conducted among 109 wealth managers from 65 firms, including banks, broker dealers, fund managers and insurance companies, across eight Asian countries ahead of the seventh Wealth Management Conference held on Friday in Hong Kong.
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