全球財富報告：10%的人掌握87%財富
Global wealth skyrocketed 8.3 per cent over the past year to a record $263trillion (£165trillion), a report revealed today.
But the research by Credit Suisse found the distribution of the riches has become increasingly unequal - with the median wealth plunging 14 per cent since 2007 to $3,641 (£2,289) per adult.
As a sign of wealth concentration, the number of dollar millionaires globally has shot up 164 per cent since 2000 to 34.8million individuals today - with 41 per cent of them living in the United States.
Global wealth now stands 20 per cent above the peak before the global financial crisis and 39 per cent above the low seen at the height of the crisis in 2008, according to the Global Wealth Report.
It said: ‘The overall global economy may remain sluggish, but this has not prevented personal wealth from surging ahead during the past year.’
The study of the wealth holdings of 4.7billion adults in more than 200 countries found aggregate household wealth has more than doubled since 2000, when it stood at $117trillion (£74trillion).
And in the next five years, wealth is expected to rise by 40 per cent to $369trillion (£231trillion). Today, each adult has an average of $56,000 ($35,000) - an all-time high for average net worth.
The decline in the median to $3,641 - the level at which half of the sample is lower and half higher - indicates that inequality, which remained flat or declined from 2000 to 2007, is once again rising.
‘The findings show that inequality has tended to rise since 2008, particularly in developing economies,’ Markus Stierli of the Credit Suisse Research Institute said.
The study credits most of the rise in wealth over the past year to North America, which accounts for 34.7 per cent of global household wealth, and Europe, which accounts for 32.4 per cent.
Both regions showed hikes of about 11 per cent. In contrast, Latin America saw little change, while China recorded only a small rise of around 3.5 per cent, and India saw its wealth fall 1 per cent.
On a country level, Britain, South Korea and Denmark recorded the largest percentage gains, while Ukraine, Argentina and Indonesia saw the largest losses, it said.
Switzerland meanwhile maintained the highest average wealth per adult, at $581,000 (£365,000), followed by Australia, Norway, the U.S. and Sweden.
Some 128,000 of the world's millionaires have assets of at least $50million (£31million), with nearly half of them living in the U.S. and nearly a quarter in Europe.
Credit Suisse said it expected the number of global millionaires to exceed 53million in 2019, with the number in China expected to nearly double from its 1.18million today.
Some one billion people meanwhile belong to the global middle class, with wealth ranging from $10,000 (£6,000) to $100,000 (£63,000), the study showed.
China's share of the middle class has doubled since 2000 and now accounts for one third of people in that category, it said.綜合英國媒體報道，瑞士信貸14日發佈2014年《全球財富報告》，報告顯示，全球財富在去年一年裏增加了8.3%，達到創紀錄的263萬億美元。不過，雖然全球財富總量在加大，但財富分配不平等現象在日益加深。
***財富總量急劇增加
全球財富比2008年金融危機前的峯值還要高出20%，比2008年危機最嚴重的低谷期高出39%。報告稱，全球經濟整體或許依然蕭條，但並沒有阻礙私人財富的高歌猛進。
從全球範圍看，北美財富增加最大，佔到全球的34.7%，歐洲位居第二，佔全球財富的32.4%。這兩個地區上年度財富增幅均爲11%。與此相反，拉丁美洲財富變化微乎其微，中國增幅較小，只有3.5%，印度反降1%。
就國家而言，英國、韓國和丹麥財富增幅最快，烏克蘭、阿根廷和印度尼西亞財富縮水最嚴重。就人均財富而言，最高的依然是瑞士，爲人均58.1萬美元，也是全球僅有的人均財富超50萬美元的國家。緊隨其後的是澳大利亞、挪威、美國和瑞典。
下個五年，全球財富有望增加40%，達到369萬億美元。預計2019年全球百萬富翁人數將超過5300萬人，中國有望增加一倍。目前中國資產過百萬美元的人數是118萬。
全球中產階級的數量是10億人，他們的財富在1萬到10萬美元之間。中國的中產階級數量自2000年以來翻了一番，佔全球的三分之一。
***財富分配不平等加劇
全球個人財富淨資產的平均值達5.6萬美元，創歷史新高。不過，個人財富的中位數卻自2007年來驟降14%，爲3650美元。這表明2000年到2007年持平或有所回落的不平等現象再度回升。
如果你的財富能達到或超過3650美元，說明你已經是全球富裕的一半人中之一。其餘50%的人則只擁有全球1%的財富，77%的人（33億人）的財富少於1萬美元。瑞士信貸研究所分析人員稱，自2008年金融危機以來，財富分配趨於兩極分化，尤其是在發展中經濟體。
作爲財富集中的標誌，全球百萬富翁（以美元計）從2000年以來直線上升164%，達到3480萬人，其中美國佔41%。報告稱，全球資產至少爲5000萬美元的富人約有12.8萬人，這些人近半在美國，歐洲佔近四分之一。
全球10%最富有的人掌握全球87%的財富。如果想成爲財富金字塔尖端的人，至少需要79.8萬美元，這1%的人佔有全球近半（48.2%）財富。
英國有3000萬人躋身10%的富人之列，其中290萬人屬於金字塔尖端的1%。全球收入不平等狀況惡化的23個國家中，英國是七國（G7）集團中唯一上榜的國家。
