- Associated Press
- A man is silhouetted against the skyline of Louis Vuitton’s floating store and the financial district of Singapore.
Yet another wealth report has put tiny Singapore on the top of its charts – this time, as the wealthiest nation in the world by GDP per capita, beating out Norway, the US, Hong Kong and Switzerland.
The report, released this week by Knight Frank and Citi Private Wealth, estimates that Singapore’s GDP per capita – at US $56, 532 in 2010, measured by purchasing power parity – is the highest in the world, topping Norway (US$51, 226), the US (US$45, 511) and Hong Kong (US$45, 301). The report also predicts that Singapore will hold its place as the world’s most affluent country in 2050 (by GDP per capita), followed closely by Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea who will displace Norway and Switzerland as the world’s richest places.
This figure is no doubt bolstered by the staggering number of millionaires in the city-state, which Knight Frank and Citi Private Wealth predict will only keep growing. According to their estimates, Singapore will see a 67% increase in centa-millionaires over the next four years – an über-wealthy class with over US$100 million in disposable wealth. Earlier reports, like the Boston Consulting Group’s Wealth Report released in June, said Singapore has the highest percentage of millionaire households in the world, a title the city-state has held on to for two years running.
Singapore is not the lone beneficiary of Southeast Asia’s wealth explosion, and according to the report the number of people in the entire region with more than US$100 million in disposable assets (excluding property, for example) has increased by 80% in the past five years. Between 2010 and 2011, the number of these centa-millionaires grew 13% — higher than the global average at 6% — and will grow by 44% by 2016. Correspondingly, some Southeast Asian cities have seen property prices increase significantly in the past year, including the Indonesian island of Bali where property prices increased 15% and Jakarta, where they increased by 14.3%.
There are now 18, 000 people with US$100 million or more in disposable assets in Southeast Asia, China and Japan, according to Knight Frank’s estimates – more than North America, which has 17, 000, and Western Europe with 14, 000.
Still, these ultra-high net worth individuals are not completely confident that their large masses of wealth will be completely unaffected by turbulence in the world economy and changing political situations, according to surveys conducted by Knight Frank. In Singapore, the wealthy are most afraid of the impact of the global financial crisis on their wealth, but those in Hong Kong are more worried about the devaluation of currency and those in India are most worried about domestic inflation.
With its high density of Louis Vuitton boutiques, luxury nightclubs and multi-million dollar property, Singapore is also growing in importance as a city for the world’s high net worth individuals. Surveys asking über-wealthy individuals to rank cities in terms of “economic activity, political power, quality of life, knowledge and influence” found that Singapore was the fifth most important city for the world’s wealthiest individuals. Here, the city-state was beaten by London, New York, Hong Kong and Paris, indicating that the world’s most global cities continue to lure the rich.
According to Knight Frank, even respondents in Asia-Pacific put London and New York ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore – an indication that economic growth may not be the most important factor when a high-net worth individual chooses his city of residence.
In the next 10 years, according to the report, Shanghai will be the fourth-most important city for the world’s wealthy with the “relative anonymity of… secondary cities” like Chongqing and Dalian likely to change in the near future, evidenced by an explosion of a luxury goods market in cities that are not yet on the map of the world’s wealthy.
The Knight Frank and Citi wealth report notes that “many of those fast-growing Chinese cities… performed significantly less well for freedom of expression and human rights – something that may hinder any future ascent to the top of the overall ranking.”
No comments:
Post a Comment