Emerging Asia’s growth in personal wealth assets is expected to be at 12.9% annually to 2025 and mature (developed) Asia at 6.4%, the report said.
The report, which looked at 2016, showed that the growth in the number of high net worth individuals in China and Japan eroded from 2015 due to adverse conditions in their home markets. In Japan, HNWIs also faced a contracting real-estate sector. China had 9.1% growth in the number of wealthy in 2016, but 16.2% growth in 2015. Japan had 6.3% vs 10.9%.
Despite the slowdown, Japan continued to top the Asia-Pacific chart with 2.89m HNWIs holding financial wealth of $7.01trn. China came in second with aggregate wealth of $5.77trn among 1.13m HNWIs.
The two markets together accounted for 73% of high-net-worth individuals or 68% of wealth assets in the region.
High net worth investors in emerging Asia, particularly Indonesia, Thailand, and India also saw their assets grow in 2016, the report said. The wealth of HNWIs in Indonesia recorded the highest growth in the region in 2016, up 14.3% to $184bn. The country had GDP growth of 5%, plus a 22.8% equity market expansion, compared with 16.3% decline in 2015.
Thailand had the second highest growth, up 12.4% to $548bn while India followed with 10% growth.
Across Asia-Pacific, the HNWI wealth increased to $18.8trn, growing by 8.2%. The figure is lower compared to the 10% annualised growth in assets from 2010-2015.
Growth in wealth and number of HNWI in selected Asian regions
| Wealth ($) | Change (%) | Number of HNWI |
Change (%) |
|
|
Japan |
7.01trn | 6.7 | 2,891,000 | 6.3 |
| China | 5.77trn | 9.8 | 1,129,000 |
9.1 |
|
India |
877bn | 10.0 | 219,000 | 9.5 |
| Hong Kong | 769bn | 4.7 | 148,000 |
4.1 |
|
Singapore |
562bn | 6.6 | 110,000 | 6.0 |
| Thailand | 548bn | 13.3 | 108,000 |
12.7 |
|
Taiwan |
464bn | 12.4 | 142,000 | 11.9 |
| Indonesia | 184bn | 14.3 | 54,000 |
13.7 |
The report also touched on investment preferences of Asia’s HNWIs. Concerned about economic risks at home, the high net worth community is inclined to diversify investments outside their home markets. Hong Kong and Singapore are the most preferred offshore investment destinations for rich individuals in China, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
