Chinese Millionaires Will Treble Soon

According to a survey released on Tuesday by Credit Suisse, despite Beijing’s national push to reduce wealth disparity and a drastically slowing economy, the number of millionaires in China is predicted to quadruple by 2026.

China’s total household wealth increased by 15.1% or $2T from 2020 to $85.1T in 2021. The official language around Beijing’s goal for “shared prosperity” has recently increased. A crackdown on abuses in sectors like technology and private education has alarmed investors. China had 6.2M millionaires in 2021, an increase of almost a million from 2020, whereas there were 5.2M more millionaires worldwide. In China, that number will treble to 12.2M within five years, according to the survey.

Will the Chinese Economy Regain Power?

The world’s second-largest economy just escaped collapsing in the second quarter because of widespread COVID-19 lockdowns and the slumping real estate market, despite the bright prognosis for China’s wealth growth. The fastest yearly rate of global family wealth growth, excluding exchange rate effects, was 12.7% in 2021. However, increased geopolitical and financial risks eclipsed the expectations. By the end of 2021, global household wealth had increased to $463.6T. It was largely due to a sharp increase in financial assets, which worsened inequality that year.

According to the research, household wealth increased the most in the United States, China, and Canada. Each of these experienced increases of $19.5T, $11.2T, and $1.8T, respectively.

According to Axel Lehmann, the chairman of Credit Suisse’s board, it’s probably too early to completely analyze the impact of the inflation, Ukraine crisis, and supply chain issue. Still, we will certainly see some reversals of the global wealth increase in 2022. The Swiss private bank is nonetheless optimistic about the five-year growth projection, estimating that by 2026, family wealth would have increased by $169T globally.