Turkey plunges down in ultra-rich ranks amid growing global wealth

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

The number of ultra-rich people in Turkey plummeted by 69 people, making Turkey drop three places to become 12th in the world, the BCG report showed.

The wealth level and the total number of ultra-rich dropped in Turkey last year, when global wealth witnessed a remarkable rise, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

With the number of millionaire households in Turkey remaining at around 22,000, showing no significant change from the previous year, Turkey dropped three places in the global rank to 42nd,  according to the BCG study, “Riding  a Wave of Growth: Global Wealth 2014.”

Turkey is also left out of the top 10 countries with the highest number of ultra-net-high-worth households, (households that have private financial wealth of more than $100 million), retreating from 9th to 12th place.

While there were 357 people worth more than $100 million in 2012, this number fell to 288 in 2013, according to the study.

However, the report also draws attention to the substantial overall wealth boost that Turkish households have recorded over five years. The total assets of individuals in Turkey amounted to around 840 billion Turkish Liras in 2013, up from around 500 billion liras in 2008.

Rise of Asia-Pacific

Moreover, the growth of wealth appears to have accelerated in this period. The annual average expansion between 2008 and 2012 was 10.6 percent, but it was 12.1 percent between 2012 and 2013.

The study also revealed that the total amount of private wealth in the booming Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, will overtake Europe this year and the United States 2018.

Private financial wealth around the world increased by 14.6 percent last year to $152.0 trillion helped by rebounding stock markets, with the Asia-Pacific region seeing a 30.5 percent jump, the BCG report said.

That translated into the number of millionaire households around the world increasing by 2.6 million, to 16.3 million. Close to half were in the United States.        

But there was strong growth in private wealth in China, where 2.4 million households count as millionaires, while the number of Japanese millionaires continued to fall.

The study said the largest store of private financial wealth – cash, securities, and bank deposits but not including real estate or luxury goods – remains the United States, and Western Europe is second.

But by the end of this year, the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan will top Europe, which could count $37.9 trillion in private wealth at the end of 2013. And by 2018, Asia will have $61 trillion, more than the $59.1 trillion projected for all of North America and $44.6 trillion for Europe.

Qatar tops millionaires

The most dense population of millionaires was in Qatar (175 out of every 1,000 households), then Switzerland (127) and Singapore (100). But Hong Kong had the highest percentage of billionaire households, at 15.3 per million, with Switzerland second.

The shift of wealth from the economic “old world” to the “new world” follows economic growth patterns and poses new challenges.

“The key challenge in developed economies is how to make the most of a large existing asset base amid volatile growth patterns,” said Brent Beardsley, coauthor of the BCG report.

“The task in the developing economies is to attract a sizable share of the new wealth being created there. Overall, the battle for assets and market share will become increasingly intense in the run-up to 2020.”