Taiwan is to see a surge in millionaires by 2028, outgrowing the rest of the world, a UBS report published on Wednesday said.
The number of adults worth more than US$1 million would have risen in 52 of 56 markets by 2028, UBS said in its UBS Global Wealth Report 2024. The fastest growth in millionaires — 47 percent — was expected to be in Taiwan, driven by the country’s microchip industry.
Overall, in dollar terms, global wealth grew by 4.2 percent last year, after a decline of 3 percent in 2022, the study said.
Photo: Aly Song, Reuters
UBS said that over the 15 years it has published its report, the Asia-Pacific region has posted the biggest growth in wealth, up almost 177 percent, followed by the Americas at about 146 percent, while Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) was up 44 percent.
However, Asia-Pacific had also seen the sharpest increase in debt, the report said. Total debt in the region was up by more 192 percent since 2008, more than 20 times the growth in EMEA and almost four times the rise for the Americas.
The UK is likely to lose about one in six of its US dollar millionaires by 2028, but their number is set to grow in other countries, including the US, and surge in Taiwan, it said.
The number of US dollar millionaires in the UK would fall by 17 percent from 3,061,553 last year to 2,542,464 in 2028. It also forecast a 4 percent fall in the Netherlands from 1,231,625 to 1,179,328.
The shift away from the UK partly reflected the fact that, with the third-highest number of millionaires, its figure was currently “disproportionately high,” UBS Global Wealth Management chief economist Paul Donovan said.
“You have obviously seen in the UK, over the last few years, as you have seen in other countries, implications arising from sanctions against Russia,” Donovan told a press conference.
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