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The UAE and three other GCC countries rank among the top 10 countries in the world by proportion of millionaire households, a study conducted by Boston Consulting Group has said.
“Qatar stood at second place with 14.3 per cent millionaire households, Kuwait came in third (11.8 per cent), the UAE came at the sixth place (5 per cent) and Bahrain stood at tenth place (3.2 per cent),” according to BCG’s new report ‘The Battle to Regain Strength: Global Wealth 2012’.
“In 2011, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain were among the top ten countries in the world by proportion of millionaire households,” Mr Markus Massi, Partner and Managing Director at BCG Middle East, said.
Private financial wealth
The highest density of millionaire households in 2011 was in Singapore, where more than 17 per cent of all households have private wealth of $1 million or higher, the report said.
Private financial wealth in West Asia and Africa grew to $4.5 trillion in 2011, up from $4.3 trillion in 2010, marking a 4.7 per cent increase, the report said.
CAGR target
Furthermore, it is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 6.6 per cent by 2016, to reach $6.1 trillion, largely as a result of continued strong GDP expansion in oil-rich countries, it said.
“We see this growth despite the fact that Middle Eastern and African stock markets suffered from the political instability caused by the uprisings across the Arab world in 2011,” said Mr Sven-Olaf Vathje, Partner and Managing Director at BCG Middle East.
BCG study estimates
The BCG study also estimates that between 2011 and 2016, private financial wealth in the region will grow by a CAGR of 8 per cent for households worth more than $100 million, 8 per cent for households worth between $1 million to $100 million and 5 per cent for households worth less than $1 million.
For private financial wealth originating from West Asia and Africa in 2011, Switzerland was the biggest offshore centre attracting $0.56 trillion, followed by the UK drawing $0.33 trillion, it said.
In terms of percentage of private wealth booked offshore, Saudi Arabia (65 per cent) took the lead in the region, followed by Kuwait (53 per cent), UAE (52 per cent), Tunisia (45 per cent), Bahrain (37 per cent), Lebanon (34 per cent) and Morocco (30 per cent), according to the report.
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