Asia-Pacific\'s rich see 12.1% wealth gains

The Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) region posted the strongest regional rate of high networth individual (HNWI) population growth last year among the top three markets, according to World Wealth Report. While HNWI wealth had already overtaken Europe in 2009, the Asia-Pacific has surpassed Europe in terms of HNWI population, expanding 9.7 per cent to 3.3 million, while Europe grew 6.3 per cent to 3.1 million. Analysts said there is a major shift taking place in the global concentration of wealth. \"The concentration of HNWIs among these areas will continue to erode if the HNWI populations of emerging and developing markets continue to grow faster than those of developed markets.\" said Karthikeyan Rajendran, Sales Director, Middle East, Global Financial Services, Capgemini. Asia-Pacific HNWIs\' wealth gained 12.1 per cent to $10.8 trillion, exceeding Europe\'s HNWI wealth of $10.2 trillion, where the wealth increase was 7.2 per cent last year. The Asia-Pacific is now the second largest region for both HNWI wealth and population, second only to North America. In the Asia-Pacific region, India\'s HNWI population became the world\'s 12th largest in 2010, entering the top 12 for the first time. While more than 53 per cent of global HNWI wealth are concentrated in the top three countries US, Japan and Germany, China came fourth in the list with a current growth rate of 12 per cent in the number of wealthy. \"If China is to grow at the current rate with in next 10 years the country is likely to overtake Germany to reach third in the global ranking,\" said Tamer Rashad, Head of Middle East, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. From / Gulf News