The number of millionaires in India is expected to reach 300,000 by 2018 from 182,000 now, says the global wealth report released by the Credit Suisse Research Institute.
The report notes that global wealth across countries increased by 4.9 per cent to $241 trillion in 2013.
It further indicates that the wealth in India rose by 7.4 per cent to $3.6 trillion in mid-2013. India's wealth has seen rapid growth since the year 2000. Wealth per adult in India has risen by 135 per cent from $2,000 in 2000 to $ 4,700 in 2013, at an average rate of eight per cent. This wealth per adult in India is expected to touch $6,600 by 2018 rising at 9.3 per cent CAGR respectively.
Along with most countries in the developing world, personal wealth in India is heavily skewed towards property and other real assets, which make up 86 per cent of the household assets.
Toral Munshi, Credit Suisse Head of India equity research, wealth management, says, "High net worth individuals in India have a lot money concentrated in other assets like gold, fixed income. Their equity allocations have not grown substantially like they did in fixed income products. Amongst the fixed income products, fixed maturity plans are the flavour of the season as they look more attractive due to the recent spike in short term rates."
Currently, just about 0.4 per cent of the Indian population has a net worth over $100,000. However, due to India's large population, this translates into 2.8 million people. India has just about a per cent of global wealth holders which equates to a 0.5 per cent share.
On the global level, North America became the world's wealthiest region for the first time since 2005, gaining 11.9 per cent, reaching $78.9 trillion.
Japan is the only country where the household wealth dropped by 20.5 per cent on the back of a 22 per cent depreciation in the Japanese Yen.
Over the next five years, the report forecasts global wealth to rise by 39 per cent to $334 trillion by 2018 at an annual growth rate of 6.7 per cent. The Asia-Pacific region will remain the largest contributor for creating wealth. In addition, the number of millionaires globally could exceed 47 million by 2018.
The report defines net-worth or wealth as the value of financial assets plus real estate minus household debt. It covers 216 countries with a total population of 7.15 billion.
