China’s millionaires, a symbol of the country’s growing wealth, increased at their slowest rate in five years last year as the economy and stock market stumbled, a survey showed.
The number of millionaires — defined as those with personal wealth of at least 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) -— rose just 3 percent year-on-year to 1.05 million, the independent Hurun Research Institute and consultancy GroupM Knowledge said.
The number of “super-rich” Chinese — with personal wealth of at least 100 million yuan — went up only 2 percent to 64,500, also the slowest pace in five years, according to the survey released on Wednesday.
The slowdown came as growth in the world’s second largest economy slipped to a 13-year low of 7.8 percent last year.
Only a quarter of Chinese millionaires were “very confident” about the domestic economy in the coming two years, the survey showed, down from 28 percent in 2011 and nearly half of those questioned in 2010.
China’s economic growth slipped further to 7.7 percent in the January-March period this year and slowed to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, raising alarm bells over possible deeper weakness.
Beijing, the nation’s capital and political center, had the highest number of millionaires with 184,000, or 17.5 percent of total, the survey said, ahead of the financial hub Shanghai on 147,000.
Stock market sluggishness also contributed to the slower growth of the wealthy population, with the Shanghai exchange’s benchmark index gaining only 3.17 percent last year.
About 15 percent — 160,000 — of Chinese millionaires named stock investments as their main source of wealth, down 5 percent from 2011, according to the survey.
Real estate remained Chinese millionaires’ top investment choice, despite government regulations aimed at cooling the market, the survey said, but they had a growing tendency to seek such investments overseas.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS