China's wealthy population up 18%

The number of high-net-worth individuals in China rose by 17.8 percent last year, thanks to stable economic growth, according to a report released yesterday.

The global population of HNWIs — people with at least US$1 million of investable wealth — grew by 14.7 percent in the year to 13.7 million. The rise was the biggest since 2009.

The study, produced by consultancy Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management, a unit of Royal Bank of Canada, did not provide an absolute figure for HNWIs in China.

It said, however, that while the expansion of China's GDP has moderated, the massive increase in HNWIs "shows that the growth story in China is not over."

In global terms, last year saw a "return to normalcy ... after years of economic upheaval," it said.

"Instead of the uncertainty that has reigned for so long, 2013 was marked by fledgling indications of recovery: a still-shaky but notable improvement in the eurozone, an aggressive shift away from deflation in Japan, stable growth in China, and growing momentum in the United States and United Kingdom," it said.

In the US, the number of high-net-worth individuals grew by 16.6 percent from 2012 to 4 million, or about 29 percent of the global total.

In Japan, the number rocketed 22 percent to 2.3 million, following annualized growth of just 4.6 percent in the 2007-12 period.

The spike was mostly attributable to "significant returns in the equity and real estate markets on the strength of positive sentiment and better economic performance, especially during the first half of 2013," the report said.

Germany, which has the third-highest number of high-net-worth individuals, after the US and Japan, saw growth of 11.4 percent last year, it said, without giving an absolute figure.

In regional terms, Asia-Pacific saw the fastest growth at 18.2 percent, followed by North America (17.1 percent), the Middle East (16.7 percent) and Europe (13.7 percent). Latin America experienced the slowest growth in the year, at just 2.1 percent.

In Latin America, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil faced internal issues such as inflation and low investor confidence, as well as slowing global demand for commodity exports, the report said.

In monetary terms, the investable wealth of the global HNWI population rose 13.8 percent last year to US$52.6 trillion.

In the previous five years, the compound growth was 61 percent, the report said.

The value figure is forecast to grow by about 6.9 percent annually in the coming years to US$64.3 trillion by 2016, it said.

Asia-Pacific is expected to lead the way in the period, with annual growth of 9.8 percent. The region is also forecast to overtake North America in population terms this year and in wealth terms next year, the report said.

The HNWI population in Asia-Pacific actually surpassed that of North America in 2011 — 3.37 million against 3.35 million — but slid back in 2012. Last year, the populations were 4.32 million and 4.33 million, respectively, the report said.

The world's rich are also becoming more global in their investment habits. In the opening months of this year, HNWIs invested more than 33 percent of their investable wealth outside their home regions, up from 25 percent in the equivalent period of last year, it said.