"Filipinos are getting richer, especially those at the top 1 percent of the population pyramid."
"Filipinos are getting richer, especially those at the top 1 percent of the population pyramid."
Did you know that the Philippines had 24,000 dollar millionaires as of 2018? That this number will swell in five years to more than 32,000? That the increase of 34 percent is the highest in ASEAN? That is according to the wealth report made by Knight Frank for 2019.
Did you know that Manila property price hikes in the past two years of 11-12 percent per year have been the highest in the world? That is according to a separate wealth report for 2019 by Credit Suisse.
What do these numbers indicate? Well, the economy is booming, with an average growth rate of 5.5 percent in GDP in the past 10 years. Consequently, Filipinos are getting richer, especially those at the top 1 percent of the population pyramid.
Meanwhile, ASEAN nationals are increasing their per capita wealth in double digits, in the 10-year 2000 to 2019 period, from a high of 62.3 percent in the case of the Vietnamese, to a low of 15.96 percent per year in the case of Singaporeans, according to an annual survey by Credit Suisse.
The average increase in per capita in the six major countries of ASEAN in population has been 30 percent per year in the past 10 years, 2000 to 2019, according to the Credit Suisse data.
In its own wealth report 2019, Knight Frank put the number of dollar millionaires, worldwide at 19 million, far less than the 46.8 million figure of Credit Suisse. Both surveys claim to be reliable.
Per Knight Frank, there are 5.6 million millionaires in Asia. Of that number, 24,162 are in the Philippines. Filipino millionaires will number 32,563 by 2023, an increase of 34 percent from 2018.
The Philippines will show the highest increase in number of millionaires between 2018 and 2023—34 percent to 32,563.
The increase in Singapore is 21 percent to 206,782 millionaires, Thailand 26 percent to 80,875, Malaysia 27 percent to 37,315, and Vietnam 28 percent to 15,776 millionaires.
Meanwhile, per Credit Suisse, overall worldwide growth in wealth was modest in the 12 months up to mid-2019.
Aggregate global wealth rose by US$9.1 trillion to US$360.6 trillion, a growth rate of 2.6 percent. Wealth per adult grew by just 1.2 percent to US$70,850 per adult in mid-2019. By 2024, total global wealth would reach $459 trillion.
According to Credit Suisse, the number of new millionaires was also relatively modest, up 1.1 million to 46.8 million.
The United States added 675,000 new millionaires, more than half of the global total. Japan and China each contributed more than 150,000, but Australia lost 124,000 millionaires following a fall in average wealth.
In 2018-19, according to Credit Suisse survey of 210 countries, the Philippines’ House Price Index increased by 12.9 percent, market capitalization by 18.5 percent, and the peso against the US dollar, by 4.2 percent.
The 12.9-percent change in house price index is the second highest in the world, after Argentina’s 45.1 percent. During the same period, Thailand’s house price index rose just 7.5 percent, the 10th highest in the world. Indonesia’s rose by 2.7 percent, and Malaysia by 2.1 percent, while Singapore’s declined by 1.5 percent.
The 12.9-percent increase in per capita house index tallies with the 11.1 percent property price increase for Manila between 2017 and 2018. The 11-percent price jump is the highest in the world, per the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2019.
The first 50 countries in the Credit Suisse survey account for 65 percent of the global population and 95 percent of global wealth.
According to Credit Suisse, Filipinos have average GDP per adult in 2019 of $5,421, average wealth per adult in 2000 of $3,118; and wealth per adult in 2019 of $10,063. Combined total wealth in 2019 was $764 billion, 2.3 times the total nominal GDP of $330 billion.
Between 2000 wealth per capita of $3,119 and 2019’s average Filipino wealth of $10,062 is an increase of $6,943 or 222 percent. That results in an average wealth increase of 22.26 percent per year.
Among the major countries of ASEAN, Vietnam has registered the highest average increase in per capita wealth, an astounding 62.3 percent clip per year, from $1,618 in 2000 to $11,712.
Thailand comes next in highest growth, a robust 31.18 percent average, with per capita wealth increasing from $5,306 in 2000 to $21,854 in 2019.
Indonesians increased their wealth on the average by 25.7 percent in the past 10 years, from $2,952 to $10,545.
The Philippines is next to the last, in average growth of per capita wealth, from $3,118 in 2000 to $10,819 in 2019, up 246 percent in 10 years, or an average per year of 24.7 percent.
Singaporeans showed the slowest average per capita increase in wealth between 2000 and 2019—just 15.96 percent. Average wealth per capita during the period jumped from $114,719 in 2000 to $297,873.
For the past 10 years, the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s Global wealth report has been the leading reference on global household wealth.
It contains the most comprehensive and up-to-date findings on global wealth across the entire wealth spectrum—from the very base of the “wealth pyramid,” covering 2.9-billion adults with wealth below US$ 10,000, to those at the apex of the wealth pyramid, who comprise less than 1 percent of the adult population, but own 44 percent of household wealth.
During the 12 months to mid-2019, aggregate global wealth rose by US$ 9.1 trillion (2.6 percent) to a combined total of US$ 361 trillion.
Wealth per adult grew by a modest 1.2 percent, although global average wealth achieved yet another record high of US$ 70,850 per adult.
