India home to 2,45,000 millionaires; household wealth at $5 trillion

The number of ultra rich in the country is expected to rech 3,72,000.

New Delhi: India's total household wealth stood at USD 5 trillion while the country is home to 2,45,000 millionaires, says a Credit Suisse report.

The number of ultra rich in the country is expected to reach 3,72,000 while the total household income is likely to grow by 7.5 percent annually to touch USD 7.1 trillion by 2022, the report said.

According to Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, since 2000, wealth in India has grown 9.9 percent per annum, faster than the global average of 6 percent even when taking into account population growth of 2.2 percent annually.

Moreover, India's wealth growth of USD 451 billion represents the 8th largest wealth gain globally by country.

"While wealth has been rising in India, not everyone has shared in this growth. There is still considerable wealth poverty, reflected in the fact that 92 percent of the adult population has wealth below USD 10,000," the report said.

At the other extreme, a small fraction of the population (just 0.5 percent of adults) has a net worth over USD 100,000. However, due to India's large population, this translates into 4.2 million people.

India has 340,000 adults in the top 1 percent of global wealth holders, which is a 0.7 percent share. By our estimates, the report said adding that 1,820 adults have wealth over USD 50 million, and 760 have more than USD 100 million.

According to the report, personal wealth in India is dominated by property and other real assets, which make up 86 percent of estimated household assets.

Personal debts are estimated to be just 9 percent of gross assets, overall household debt as a proportion of assets in India is lower than in most developed countries.

"Thus, although indebtedness is a severe problem for many poor people in India, overall household debt as a proportion of assets in India is lower than in most developed countries," it added.

According to the eighth edition of the Global Wealth Report, in the year to mid-2017, total global wealth rose at a rate of 6.4 percent, the fastest pace since 2012 and reached USD 280 trillion.

The rise in global wealth reflected widespread gains in equity markets and similar rises in non-financial assets.

The report noted fluctuations in asset prices and exchange rates account for much of the change in household wealth across regions and countries in the short run.

Most of these influences have been positive during past 12 months, including in India, where market capitalisation rose by close to 30 percent, house prices by around 10 percent, while Indian rupee rose 4 percent against the US dollar.

Globally, Switzerland remains the richest nation in the world in terms of wealth per adult with USD 537,600 in 2017, followed by Australia (USD 402,600) and United States (USD 388,000) in the second and third place respectively, the report said.