Strong markets breed millionaires
By Craig Phillips
There has been an 11 per cent spurt in the number of high-net-wealth individuals in Australia over the past year, according to the 2004 World Wealth Report released last week by Merrill Lynch and international consulting firm Capgemini.
The report claims this group of wealthy individuals, those with over US$1 million of financial assets excluding their primary residential property, was 117,000 at the end of 2003 — up 12,000 in 2002.
“Australia’s strong performance was driven largely by healthy increases in GDP, the ongoing strength of the domestic real estate sector, and the continuing resilience of the local share market,” Merrill Lynch global private client head Tom Alexy says.
According to the report, the combined assets of this wealthy group in Australia increased by US$38 billion to US$368 billion — a rise of 12 per cent from 2002.
“This was supported by a strong rally in major equity markets and solid economic growth globally,” Capgemini wealth management head in Australia Alex Lee says.
The average wealth of an Australian high-net-wealth individual was US$3.2 million at the end of 2003, compared to a global average of US$3.7 million.
Globally, there were an estimated 7.7 million high-net-worth individuals in the world at the end of 2003, up 7.5 per cent or a net 500,000 people compared with the previous year.
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