Asia Pacific records the largest population of HNW individuals in the world
For the first time, the Asia Pacific region has recorded the largest high net worth (HNW) population compared with any other region in the world, according to the World Health Report 2012 by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management.
The study defined a HNW individual as someone with US$1 million or more in investable assets, with this market segment in the Asia Pacific growing by 1.6 per cent to 3.37 million in 2011, surpassing North America's HNW population of 3.35 million.
The report also revealed the total number of HNW individuals in Australia had fallen by 6.9 per cent to 179,500, pointing to the 1.7 per cent growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2011 compared to the 2.8 per cent growth in 2010 as a reason for the drop.
"The services sector contributed to 70.7 per cent to GDP in 2011 but grew by 5.1 per cent, compared to a growth of 3 per cent in 2010," Capgemini Australian financial services wealth management specialist Dorus van den Biezenbos said.
Apart from the Middle East, global wealth for individuals in the HNW category declined 1.7 per cent across all regions in 2011, the first reported decline since 2008.
Despite this, the report found the number of affluent people globally grew by 0.8 per cent to 11 million, with the majority of growth contributed by HNW individuals who fell into the $1-5 million wealth category.
With 2011 being characterised by a return by investors to "safe-haven assets" like cash and fixed income, HNW individuals should expect returns to be extremely positive or extremely negative, rather than equally distributed, the report stated.
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