Global Wealth Moving Toward Asia, Shows Report

Global wealth has been shifting to Asia, with China gaining seven more billionaires in the year 2017, according to a Bloomberg report. India gained five more billionaires while four more were added in Thailand.

Seventeen Americans fell from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of world’s 500 wealthiest individuals. However, the United States still leads the list, with most number of billionaires (160), followed by Germany (39) and China (38).

While the United States has the largest presence on the index, with 160 billionaires adding $315 billion, its 18 per cent gain isn’t a match for China’s record 65 per cent gain and India’s 45 per cent gain. The richest people became $1 trillion richer, the report showed.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranked 500 billionaires across the globe by their net worth, in which 23 Indians were named. Mukesh Ambani, ranked 20, is the richest Indian with total net worth of $40.1 billion in 2017. He is followed by ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal at 47th rank with total net worth of $19.5 billion. Wipro Chairman Azim Premji is ranked 61 while Pallonji Mistry, the Chairman of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, is at 65th rank. Shiv Nadar, the founder and Chairman of HCL, is ranked 93.

The list also included, among others, owners of Sun Pharmaceuticals Dilip Shangvi, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, Kotak Mahindra Group MD Udai Kotak and Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla.

Asia’s economic expansion sees a new billionaire created every other day and should the pace continue, Asia will overtake the United States with the largest concentration of wealth in four years, a report released by UBS Group AG and PricewaterhouseCoopers in October last year said after an analysis of data from roughly 1,550 billionaires.

“As China hooks up its capital markets to the global system, it will have a very profound impact on capital flows — on Europe as well,” UBS Chief Investment Officer Mark Haefele was earlier quoting as saying by Bloomberg. Three-quarters of the world’s new billionaires hail from China and India.

According to UBS, Europe was flatlining in part because “entrepreneurial companies can find Europe a difficult place to do business due to both the conservative business culture and strict regulations.”