The Boston Consulting Group has published a report on Private Wealth.
[https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/financial_institutions_business_unit_strategy_global_wealth_2014_riding_wave_growth/?chapter=2#chapter2_section3]
The numbers are incredible.
US$152 Trillion = £90 Trillion.
To quantify that number that is about 9 times the annual US GDP or 56 times the UK GDP.
The report gives the reason for the rise in wealth down to the growth in growth stock markets, but it does not give a reason for that equity inflation. For sure, with central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England flooding the markets with cheap cash via Quantative Easing, this cash is driving up share prices.
Why hold cash at 0.5% when shares offer a higher return.
The report talks about the acceleration in growth in Asia-Pacific the Asia-Pacific region and its new wealth will account for about half of the total growth.
China was has 2.4 million people with assets of over $1million and this is more than Japan.
The total number of millionaire households (in US dollars) reached 16.3 million in 2013.
If each of these 16.3 million people each had $1,000,000 each that equates to:-
16,300,000 x $1,000,000 = $16,300,000,000,000.
That is $16,300 Million = $16.3 Trillion of wealth
But of course these 16.3 million clearly have more than just $1,000,000, thus the number of US$152 Trillion = £90 Trillion.
The ten countries and the number of millionaires
USA = 7,135,000
China = 2,378,000
Japan = 1,240,000
UK = 513,000
Switzerland = 435,000
Germany = 386,000
Canada = 384,000
Taiwan = 329,000
Italy = 281,000
France = 274,000
Incredible numbers of the wealthy who are defined with assets over $1,000,000 and the UNHW (Ultra High Net Worth) individuals with assets of $100 million or above.