Indian household wealth hits $5 trillion

New Delhi: India’s total household wealth stood at $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 lakh while the total household income is likely to grow by 7.5 per cent annually to touch $7.1 trillion by 2022, the report said.

According to the report, since 2000, wealth in India has grown 9.2 per cent per annum, faster than the global average of 6 per cent even when taking into account population growth of 2.2 per cent annually.

Moreover, India’s wealth growth of $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 per cent of the adult population has wealth below $10,000,” the report said.

At the other extreme, a small fraction of the population (just 0.5 per cent of adults) has a net worth of over $1 lakh. However, due to India’s large population, this translates into 4.2 million people.

India has 3.4 lakh adults in the top 1 per cent of global wealth holders, which is a 0.7 per cent share. By our estimates, the report said adding that 1,820 adults have wealth of over $50 million, and 760 have more than $100 million.

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

Personal debts are estimated to be just 9 per cent 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 report, in the year to mid-2017, total global wealth rose at a rate of 6.4 per cent, the fastest pace since 2012 and reached $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 per cent, house prices by around 10 per cent, while rupee rose 4 per cent against the US dollar.