IS ASIA RICHER?

ASIA RICHER THAN EVER — OR IS IT?

The Japan Times, July 1, 2012

Asian millionaires have surpassed North American millionaires for the first time ever, according to a study by Capgemini consultancy and the Royal Bank of Canada. The Asia-Pacific region now has 3.37 million so-called high-net-worth individuals, calculated in terms of the number of people with over $1 million in investible assets.

That edged out the 3.35 million in North America. Asia had already edged out Europe in the number of millionaires in 2010.

China's ongoing economic boom churned out 562,000 millionaires in 2011, the fourth-highest number after the United States, Japan and Germany. While India and Hong Kong saw a downturn in the numbers of millionaires, the figures in China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia all increased considerably.

Despite the 3/11 disasters and general economic downturn, Japan managed to show 4.8 percent more millionaires last year, due in part to conservative investments and high savings.

Of course, many of those with increasing wealth are really multimillionaires. Details on how the ultrarich spend their money in these investment reports focus on the future of markets in real estate, luxury brands, high-end travel, and auctions of everything from wine to art. Those purchases seem to indicate that the wealth of Asia's millionaires is becoming more fully established and diversified, as well as more sophisticated.

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