Credit Suisse Wealth Reports On China

China will mint millionaires more than seven times faster than the US in the five years through 2026, despite the effects of inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which are likely to hamper global wealth creation, according to Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report 2022 published on Tuesday.

The number of US dollar millionaires in China will increase by 97 per cent to 12.2 million by 2026, compared with a 13 per cent rise in the US to 27.7 million wealthy individuals over the same period, according to projections by the Swiss bank.

"We expect household wealth in China to continue to catch up with the United States, advancing the equivalent of 14 US years between 2021 and 2026," the report said. "Despite the inflation and Russia-Ukraine war setbacks, we believe that total global wealth will continue to grow."

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Household wealth in China grew by US$11.2 trillion last year, accounting for over a quarter of the total increase in global wealth of US$41.5 trillion in 2021. The world's second-largest economy had 9.9 per cent of the global millionaire population at 6.2 million, behind the US, which had 39 per cent of the total or 24.5 million wealthy individuals.

Sequoia Capital led venture capitalists in first half of 2022: Hurun

While the US tops the world millionaire table and is still far ahead of second-place China, its dominance is set to slip amid limited GDP growth and the possibility that asset prices will subside from their peak values at the end of 2021, according to the report.

The Credit Suisse report, in its 13th edition, is an annual study compiled from data on the wealth holdings of 5.3 billion adults in over 200 countries.

The number of millionaires around the world is expected to exceed 87.5 million in 2026, growing 40 per cent from the 62.5 million wealthy individuals at the end of 2021. This rapid rise reflects in part the fact that higher inflation will make it easier to pass the million US dollar threshold, according to the report.

Credit Suisse expects global wealth to rise 36 per cent to US$169 trillion by 2026, while wealth per adult is forecast to rise 28 per cent during the same period, and pass the US$100,000 threshold in 2024.

Hong Kong ranked third in terms of wealth per adult last year at US$552,930, after Switzerland with US$696,600 and the US with US$579,050.

China tycoons' wealth shrinks more than any other in Hurun list

"While some reversal of the exceptional wealth gains of 2021 is likely in 2022/2023 as several countries face slower growth or even recession, our five-year outlook is for wealth to continue growing," said Nannette Hechler-Fayd'herbe, global head of economics and research at Credit Suisse in a statement.

Meanwhile, Chinese tycoons made up nearly half of the 337 drop-offs from the world's US dollar-based billionaires in the first three months of the year, outnumbering those from any other country due to a combination of wealth-destroying events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2022, published in March. The US and Russia lost 32 and 13 billionaires from the list, respectively.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post, edited and redistributed by Intels News