April - 2010 issue > In Focus

By si Team

India, with the world’s largest population of poor people living on less than a dollar a day, also created millionaires at the fastest pace in the world in 2007, though the world grew such high net worth individuals (HNWI) at the slowest pace in four years.

Growing them at a pace of 22.7 percent, India added another 23,000 more millionaires in 2007 to its 2006 tally of 100,000 millionaires measured in dollars, according to an annual Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini report. In contrast, developmental agencies put the number of subsistence level for Indians living on less than a dollar a day at 350 million and those living on less than $2 a day at 700 million. In other words, for every millionaire, India has about 7,000 impoverished people.

According to News Daily, while India’s high net worth individual (HNWI) saw a growth of 22.7 percent in 2007 exceeding China’s 20.3 percent and its own 2006 gains of 20.5 percent, it was still way below its giant neighbor in absolute number of millionaires. China counted nearly 500,000 HNWIs. Overall, the number of millionaires (not counting home values in their assets) in the world grew at 9.4 percent and crossed the 10 million mark for the first time. The U.S., despite its economic woes, leads the pack with more than three million millionaires.

The combined wealth of the globe’s millionaires grew to nearly $41 trillion last year, which means their average wealth was more than $4 million, the highest it’s ever been.

“India led the world in this, driven by market capitalization growth of 118 percent and real GDP growth of 7.9 percent. Although India’s real GDP growth decelerated from 9.4 percent in 2006, current levels are considered more stable and sustainable,” the report observes.

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