Robust economic growth helped 200,000 people join the ranks of the Asia-Pacific's millionaires last year, with Singapore's club growing the fastest, a study showed yesterday.

The number of people worth 1 million US dollars or more in the Asia-Pacific region grew by 8.6 percent in 2006 to 2.6 million, making up 27 percent of the world's millionaires, according to the annual Asia-Pacific Wealth Report by investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and consultancy Capgemini.

The combined wealth of the region's millionaires swelled 10.5 percent to $8.4 trillion, up by from 2005, with Japan accounting for 43 percent and China about a fifth.

The report also said the region's class of super-rich individuals whose assets exceed $30 million grew by 12.2 percent to 17,500, exceeding the global rate of 11.3 percent.

"It is really a story of growth, growth and growth, all across," said Rahul Malhotra, Merrill Lynch's head of global wealth management for Asia-Pacific.

Wealth creation was driven by the region's rapidly developing economies, among the fastest-growing in the world.

Handsome returns from regional stock markets also boosted wealth, as benchmark stock indices in China, Indonesia, India and Hong Kong outperformed most mature capital markets with returns over 30 percent, the report said.

Savings rates, as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, were higher in Asia-Pacific than most developed markets, with rates greater than 40 percent in China and Singapore. In Singapore, the number of millionaires rose by 21.1 percent to 67,000, giving it the fastest growing population of individuals with financial assets of at least $1 million, excluding their primary residences.

The report said researchers found that the Indonesian population residing in Singapore comprised a significant share of millionaires.

It noted that the city-state began a program that allows foreigners to obtain residency through investment and estimated that approximately 19,000 Indonesian millionaires reside in Singapore, holding about $93 billion in financial wealth.

India and Indonesia followed Singapore as the next two fastest-growing millionaire populations, with 20.5 percent and 16 percent increases in the numbers of millionaires respectively, the report shows.

Agencies

(China Daily 10/19/2007 page10)