Despite the crisis, citizens of the world are getting rich rapidly. Over the past year and a half of global prosperity has increased by 14 percent - to 231 billion dollars. In the next five years, it should increase by another half, triggering "unprecedented economic changes."
The relevant study was conducted by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse, analyzing the distribution of wealth between 4.5 billion adult citizens in more than 200 countries. Experts reported a pleasant news - in five years, every adult will increase material wealth by 40 percent, to 70.7 thousand dollars.
For many, it was a surprise that the main generator of world wealth was not the United States, but the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The residents of this region account for 54 percent of the increase in global wealth, which is defined as the finances and real estate of individuals minus debt.
So, from January 2010 to June 2011, the material wealth of households increased by 14 percent - up to 231 trillion dollars. At the same time, the welfare of adults in the Asia-Pacific region jumped by 23 percent to $ 75 trillion, while the citizens of North America grew 9.2 percent and Europeans only grew by 4.8 percent.
According to Credit Suisse forecast, in the foreseeable future, the citizens of the planet will accumulate material goods with an average speed of 8.4 percent per year. Not later than 2016, world welfare will increase by 50 percent - up to 345 trillion dollars. The main driver of this growth promises to be China.
The welfare of households in this country will increase by more than 90 percent, reaching 39 trillion dollars. Thus, the Chinese will become the second richest nation, pushing Japan, whose citizens will be able to accumulate by 316, 31 trillion dollars. The leader in terms of consistency in five years will remain the US with an index of 81 trillion dollars.
Citizens of India and Brazil, according to calculations by Credit Suisse, will increase their wealth more than twofold in the next five years - to $ 8.9 trillion and $ 9.2 trillion, respectively.
Over the past decade, the welfare of Indians has tripled. Today, each of them on average can boast personal finances and property worth $ 5,500. However, the average level of well-being of Indians is still many times lower than the world average (51 thousand dollars per person) and almost a hundred times lower than in the wealthiest country in the world - Switzerland, each adult citizen of which on average owns a capital of 540 thousand dollars .
Nevertheless, the fast-growing welfare of residents of countries such as India, can create new trends in consumption and investment. According to the bank's experts, the higher growth of Asians' welfare and the much weaker debt burden of Europeans create opportunities for fruitful mutually beneficial cooperation in overcoming the eurozone crisis. Today, every adult citizen of Europe on average hangs 25.5 thousand dollars of debt, while for residents of the Asia-Pacific region this figure is 9.2 thousand dollars, and they have all the improving opportunities to lend money to Europeans.
However, the Credit Suisse report and optimistic forecasts are unlikely to contribute to the establishment of calm in the markets. The bank's study confirmed that 29.7 million of the wealthiest citizens who own more than $ 1 million in capital make up less than one percent of the population, but control 38.5 percent of global wealth. Last week, this indicator of social inequality has become one of the main reasons for the protests that broke out in hundreds of cities around the world.
According to Credit Suisse, there are 84700 ultra-wealthy citizens in the world today, each with a capital exceeding $ 50 million. Most of them (about 35,400) live in the United States. Second place in terms of numbers is occupied by China (5.4 thousand), in Germany there are 4135, Switzerland - 3820, Japan - 3400, Russia - 1970, India - 1840, Brazil - 1520.
However, India has a distinctive feature - although in this state there are a lot of ultra-rich citizens (34,000 new millionaires just for 2011), most of them will be more correctly considered residents of other countries.