Gulf states dominate new millionaires list

The percentage of millionaire households in many Gulf countries are some of the highest in the world, a new study by Boston Consulting Group has revealed. While Singapore led the list with 17 millionaire households per 100, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman all featured in the top 15. Qatar led the way in the Gulf region with more than 14 millionaire households per 100, placing it second globally. Kuwait was third with 11.8 percent of its households holding more than $1m in personal wealth. The UAE was sixth (five percent), Bahrain was 10th (3.2 percent) and Oman 13th with 2.5 percent, the Boston Consulting Group report showed. Gulf countries also featured prominently on the list of ultra high-net-worth households per 100,000 in 2011. Switzerland was top of the list with 11 households per 100,000 holding more than $100m in personal wealth. Kuwait and Kuwait had six UHNW households and the UAE had four, placing them in the top 10 countries worldwide. the study showed. Boston Consulting said it omitted Saudi Arabia from its ultra-wealthy ranking because it was too difficult to define different households within the royal family network. The study also revealed that China, India and Singapore posted the biggest increases in millionaires last year. Millionaire households in China rose 16 percent to 1.43 million while those in Singapore climbed 14 percent to 188,000 and India saw a 21 percent increase to 162,000. Millionaire households in the US fell by 129,000 to 5.13 million. Europe’s debt crisis and declining equity markets slowed the increase in global wealth last year with a 1.9 percent gain to $122.8trn. “It’s the first significant interruption of growth since the financial crisis,” said Peter Damisch, a partner with Boston Consulting in Zurich. “Emerging markets will play a bigger role in private wealth going forward,” he added in comments published by Bloomberg. The report showed that the US had 5,136 millionaire households, putting it at the top of the Boston Consulting Group list, followed by Japan (1,587) and China (1,432). From Arabian Business