Just 10 percent of richest Indians own over 77.4% or almost 3/4th of its wealth with the richest 1% controlling more than 51% of the wealth, according to the ninth Global Wealth Report by Credit Suisse Research Institute.
While India’s share of global wealth has been increasing for over a decade now with India being referred to as a growth story, the bank also said that the poorest section i.e. about 60% of the population have less than 5% share in the nation’s wealth.
“India’s wealth has trended upward strongly since the turn of the century, although there was a setback in 2008 due to the global financial crisis and there have been bumps due to currency fluctuations,” the bank said in its report about India.
According to the report, of the total adult population of 850 million, 91% people have wealth lower than $10,000.
The report also says that the number of millionaires in Indian is rising and by 2023, India will have 526,000 millionaires from the current 343,000 in 2018.
While India’s wealth has been on the rise, the country remains poor, the report says. “While wealth has been rising in India, not everyone has shared in this growth. There is still considerable wealth poverty, reflected in the fact that 91% of the adult population has wealth below $10,000. At the other extreme, a small fraction of the population (0.6% of adults) has a net worth of over $100,000,” the report says.
India has a total wealth of $ 6 trillion, which means wealth per adult in India is just $7,024. 91% of Indians have less than $ 10,000 in wealth. In contrast, just 28.4% of adults in the U.S. have $10,000 or less and just a third of the Chinese population has less than $10,000.
The annual growth of wealth per adult averaged 8% over 2000– 18 period and prior to 2008, wealth also rose strongly, from $1,830 in 2000 to $5,020 in 2007. After falling 26% in 2008, it rebounded and grew at an average rate of 7% up to 2018.
The report says that personal wealth in India is dominated by property and other real assets, which make up 91% of estimated household assets which is typical for developing countries. Personal debts are estimated to be only $840, or just 11% of gross assets, even when adjustments are made for under-reporting. Thus, although indebtedness is a severe problem for many poor people in India, overall household debt as a proportion of assets in India is lower than in most developed countries, the report says.
India has 404,000 adults in the top 1% of global wealth holders, which is a 0.8% share. According to the bank’s estimates, 3,400 adults in India have wealth over $50 million, and 1,500 have more than $100 million.