Stock market crash for one reason 2022: why is the number of the super-rich declining?

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Financial assets overall shrank 3.5 percent to $255 trillion, according to the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) global wealth report. Investors from Europe and North America were particularly hard hit. The last time such a decline was reported was during the global financial crisis in 2008.

Despite declining financial assets (cash, bank balances, debt securities, stocks and mutual funds and pensions), total net worth rose 0.3 percent to $459 trillion. This is due to higher real assets such as real estate, precious metals and other physical assets, which rose more than 5 percent to $261 trillion last year.

Not all are equally affected

“The Western world, in particular, experienced a sharp decline in financial assets in 2022,” said Swiss BCG partner Michael Kahlich. Financial assets shrank by more than $10 trillion in North America and more than $1.4 trillion in Western Europe. Assets invested in Australia also fell slightly. In Asia, financial assets increased slightly, as in the Middle East.

Net wealth in Switzerland increased by 2.5 percent to approximately $5.4 trillion. Financial assets totaled $3.4 trillion and physical assets totaled $3 trillion. This was offset by about $1.1 trillion in liabilities.

Small, rich Switzerland

Switzerland said it will invest 40 percent of its financial assets in pension funds and life insurance. Switzerland ranks 14th in the world in terms of net worth. At the top will be the United States ($144 trillion), China ($76 trillion) and Japan ($24 trillion).

Germany ($19.2 trillion) is in fourth place. France in fifth place ($ 16.3 trillion) and Great Britain in sixth place ($ 16.2 trillion).

Asset growth in the Swiss financial center slowed to 0.9 percent last year from the previous year (2021: +5.5 percent). This is due to the wealth of residents, which shrank by 2.2 percent due to the stock market crash. Meanwhile, assets in cross-border trade rose 4.1 percent.

More millionaires than in Germany

Although net wealth has increased slightly, the number of the super-rich has fallen. There are 740 of these people in Switzerland who have adopted more than $100 million. This is 3 percent less than the previous year. They own 21 percent of the financial assets in the country.

Also, there are more than 580,000 people in Switzerland with financial assets of over $1 million. That’s more than its larger neighbor Germany (520,000).

There are a total of 62,000 super-rich in the world. That’s 4,000 fewer than a year ago. Most of the super-rich live in the US (22,000), ahead of China (almost 7,600). (SDA/koh)

Source :Blick