India's HNWIs grew by 20.5 per cent

Mumbai, Oct 17: With fast pace economic growth and a surging market capitalization, the number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in India grew by 20.5 per cent to one lakh at the end of 2006, according to the second Asia-Pacific Wealth Report published by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

The report reveals that Indian HNWIs, people with net financial assets of at least 1 million US Dollar, held combined financial assets worth USD 350 billion. It represents four per cent of the total Asia-Pacific HNWI wealth of USD four trillion. On the basis of a demographic analysis, on an average the majority of India's HNWIs were between the age group of 41-55, the report said.

Attributing the increase in the number of Indian HNWIs to the growth driven by economic expansion of the country and robust stock market capitalisation in the year 2006, DSP Merrill Lynch Global Private Client Head Pradeep Dokania said, ''Robust economic growth and strong financial markets, along with gains in income and credit expansion which drove private consumption, were the key drivers of the growth in India's HNWI population.'' Asia Pacific HNWIs net wealth in 2006 grew by 10.5 per cent in comparison to 2005. The high concentration of the net wealth was found in Japan and China. The two countries shared 43.7 per cent and 20.6 per cent respectively, the report added.

The report highlighted that in the Asia Pacific region the concentration of wealthy Non Resident Indians (NRI) was highest in Hong Kong, followed by Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan in 2006.

The report was based on the wealth assessment of high net worth population and its behaviour in nine Asia Pacific regional markets including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

UNI