India's household wealth rises 7.4% to $3.6 trn

According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2013, after North America and Europe India has witnessed the highest rise in household wealth

India has seen rapid growth in wealth creation between mid-2012 to mid-2013 as the household wealth in the country has increased by 7.4% to $3.6 trillion during the period, says a report.

 

According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2013, after North America (11.9%) and Europe (7.7%) India has witnessed the highest rise in household wealth.

 

Globally, household wealth increased by 4.9% to over $240 trillion, Credit Suisse said adding that the US accounted for 72% of the increase.

 

Meanwhile, the average wealth per adult globally reached a new all time high of $51,600.

 

"As the world's largest democracy with a strong federal structure and vibrant markets, India has seen rapid growth in wealth since the year 2000," the report said.

 

Wealth per adult rose from $2,000 in 2000 to $4,700 in 2013, but the 35% rise in the adult population caused aggregate wealth to more than triple during the same period, it added.

 

The report further noted that along with most countries in the developing world, personal wealth in India is heavily skewed towards property and other real assets, which make up 86% of household assets.

 

However, while wealth has been rising strongly in India, and the ranks of the middle class and wealthy have been swelling, not everyone has shared in this growth and there is still a great deal of poverty.

 

According to the report, this is reflected in the fact that 94% of the adult population has wealth below $10,000.

 

At the other end of the scale, a very small proportion of the population (just 0.4%) has net worth over $100,000. However, due to India's large population, this translates into 2.8 million people.

 

Meanwhile, globally also inequality remains high, with the top 10% of the world population owning 86% of global wealth, compared to barely 1% for the bottom half of all adults.

 

As per the report, India's extreme wealth inequality and immense population mean that "India also has a significant number of members in the top wealth echelons".

 

India has 254,000 members of the top 1% of global wealth holders, Credit Suisse said.