Singapore: Who wants to be a millionaire?
SINGAPORE’S population of US dollar millionaires surged by a staggering 21.2 per cent last year to 66,660 - the fastest growth rate of any nation in the world. The dramatic boost in the membership of this once highly exclusive club came amid a booming stock market, strong economy and the start of the property rebound last year.
This is the second time in three years that the Republic has posted the highest growth globally in the annual World Wealth Report, compiled by Merrill Lynch and research firm Capgemini.
About 11,660 newly minted millionaires joined the ranks here last year, the survey of the well-to-do in 71 countries has found.
A million greenbacks currently converts to about S$1.54 million. The 66,660 millionaires account for about 1.5 per cent of the population ? and that means three out of every 200 people here are millionaires.
The number of millionaires in the world increased by 8.3 per cent in 2006, with about 9.5 million individuals now estimated to have more than a million dollars in financial assets.
The financial assets owned by the group totalled US$37.2 trillion (S$57.3 trillion), an increase of 11.4 per cent from 2005.
Singapore, India, Indonesia and Russia produced the greatest number of new millionaires.
The survey said strong global economic growth and gains on the stock market explained the expansion of the exclusive club of ‘High Net Worth Individuals’ (HNWIs).
‘Real GDP and market capitalisation growth rates, two primary drivers of wealth generation, accelerated throughout 2006, which helped to increase the total number of HNWIs around the world as well as the amount of wealth they control,’ the report said.
The number of Ultra-HNWIs - individuals with financial assets exceeding US$30 million - increased by 11.3 per cent in 2006.
The global population of this extremely affluent group is now estimated at 94,970 people.
The financial assets of Ultra-HNWIs increased by 16.8 per cent compared with 2005, illustrating a trend whereby wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the already wealthy, the report said.
‘Global wealth continued to consolidate in 2006, a trend we have reported for the past 11 years,’ the report said.
Capgemini and Merrill Lynch define a millionaire as someone with more than one million dollars in financial assets such as cash, equities, bonds or funds.
They do not include the value of an individual’s primary residence or private collections of objects such as art, antiques or coins.
Investments of passion
This year’s report included a section looking at the money spent by millionaires on so-called ‘investments of passion,’ meaning investments in luxury goods.
More than a quarter of such investments were in private jets, sports teams, yachts or race horses, with the remainder in art, fine wine and jewelry.
‘On average, art investments comprised 20 per cent of HNWIs’ investments of passion - outlays that were dwarfed by the huge prices paid for private aircraft and yachts,’ the report said.
The survey also highlighted a trend among millionaire investors to put money into the real estate market in 2006, particularly commercial real estate, to take advantage of surging rental and property prices.
The collective fortune of the HNWI population is forecast to hit US$51.6 trillion in 2011, compared with US$37.2 trillion last year.
Source: The Straits Times, 28 June 2007
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