Chinese worth individuals rise to 1.6m in past decade

The number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in China has risen to nearly 9 times since a decade ago, a private survey released on Tuesday showed.

The HNWIs rose as strong growth in the world's second-largest economy has spurred wealth creation.

Chinese with at least 10 million yuan ($1.47 million) of investable assets hit 1.6 million in 2016, up from 180,000 in 2006, according to the 2017 China Private Wealth Report by Bain Consulting and China Merchants Bank. 

The overall value of the private wealth market increased to 165 trillion yuan in 2016, growing at 21 per cent annually in 2014-2016.

But the growth rate of China's private wealth market is expected to decline to 14 per cent in 2017 to a total size of 188 trillion yuan.

Around 120,000 HNWIs had at least 100 million yuan worth of investable assets, up from less than 10,000 people in 2006.

The percentage of HNWIs with overseas investment increased to 56 per cent in 2017, up from 19 per cent in 2011, but the overall percentage of assets invested overseas has stabilised since 2013.

The top five destinations for overseas investment were Hong Kong, the United States, Australia and Canada although Hong Kong's popularity fell 18 per cent and the United States dropped 3.0 per cent from 2015 to 2017.

Respondents said their top three reasons for investing overseas were to diversify investment risks, to capture market opportunities of overseas investments and to migrate, reports Reuters.