Stock market gains create extra one million millionaires in China, says global wealth report
Last year’s increase takes the nation’s total of US-dollar millionaires to four million, second only to the United States with seven million
The population of US-dollar millionaires in China soared to four million last year as the country added the highest number of US-dollar millionaires amid the surging stock market, a study shows.
China, which added one million new millionaires last year, had the world’s second-largest such population in the world, following the United States’ seven million, according to the latest Global Wealth report released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on Monday.
Private wealth in China was driven mainly by investments in local equities, with the country’s equity market rising by 38 per cent, the annual report said.
Japan, in third place, had one million millionaire households last year, but the number was down from the previous year because of the fall in the yen against the US dollar, it said.
BCG defines millionaire households as those with more than US$1 million in private wealth, including cash, stocks and other financial investments, but not real estate, collectibles, business ownership or luxury goods.
Globally, the total number of millionaire households reached 17 million last year – an increase of 13 per cent compared with the 15 million recorded in 2013.
