Wealth of global billionaires fell in 2018 for first time in three years

The world’s billionaires saw their collective fortunes dip in 2018 for the first time in three years, erasing $388 billion of their net worth.

Asia was hardest hit, as slowing growth in China and rising US interest rates resulted in an 8% wealth drop among that continent’s richest people, according to the UBS/PwC Billionaires Report released Friday. Those in the US fared better, fueled by tech billionaires who numbered 89 by the end of 2018, up from 70 a year earlier.

The billionaire boom “has now undergone a natural correction,” Josef Stadler, head of ultra-high net worth at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in the report. “The stronger dollar, combined with greater uncertainty over equity markets amidst a tough geopolitical environment” were the main drivers, he said.

Excessive wealth has become an increasingly contentious issue globally, with some US presidential candidates making it central to their campaigns. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has proposed a 6% wealth tax on assets over $1 billion, while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has said that billionaires shouldn’t exist at all. Beyond Washington, protests from Hong Kong to France are seeking a reckoning for the rich, citing decades of inequality as a cause of their frustration.

Stock markets have bounced back since 2018, with the MSCI All-Country World Index up 20%CK so far in 2019. And even with last year’s dip, billionaires’ wealth increased almost 35% -- or $2.2 trillion -- since 2013, according to the report.

“We’ve seen that these people can be successful and drive change regardless of who’s in a leadership role on the political scene,” said John Mathews, who oversees UBS Group AG’s private wealth and ultra-high net-worth business in the Americas.