Less super rich
Global financial wealth is shrinking again for the first time
6/27/2023 7:46 am
For the first time in almost a decade, the financial wealth of people around the world is falling. The wealthy are particularly affected. Price falls on the stock markets are responsible.
According to a study, the financial wealth of people around the world has fallen again for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis. In particular, price slumps on the stock exchanges as a result of the Ukraine war caused assets from shares, investment funds, account balances and the like to fall by 3.5 percent to 255 trillion US dollars (about 232 trillion euros) last year. This is the result of a study by the management consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
“The Western world in particular experienced a sharp slump in financial assets in 2022,” explained BCG partner Michael Kahlich. The wealthy were particularly affected by falling prices on the capital markets. The club of the super-rich, with financial assets of more than 100 million dollars, shrank by around 4,000 to almost 62,000 members worldwide last year. In Germany, more than 100 lost their status as super rich. However, the remaining 2,900 own 21 percent of all financial assets in the country. In total, there are more than 500,000 people in this country who have over one million dollars in financial assets.
According to the study, tangible assets such as real estate, precious metals or jewelery continued to increase in value last year (plus 5.5 percent). Total net worth worldwide less debt therefore rose slightly by 0.3 percent to $459 trillion. In Germany, however, the study recorded a decline of 1.1 percent to 19.2 trillion dollars. More than 40 percent of financial assets in this country are therefore in savings accounts or are hoarded as cash. That is almost ten percentage points more than the global average.
Boston Consulting believes in an upswing
Despite the decline, Germany still ranks fourth on the list of net wealth, behind the USA (144 trillion), China (76 trillion) and Japan (24 trillion). According to estimates by the management consultancy, global net wealth is likely to increase by 5 percent annually to almost $600 trillion by 2027.
Recently published studies confirm the trend of the past year, even if the numbers are not identical due to differences in methodology. According to data from the consulting firm Capgemini, many rich people felt the slump in the stock markets in 2022. The number of people with investable assets of at least one million US dollars has fallen worldwide.
With regard to Germany, the Bundesbank came to the conclusion that people in this country lost billions overall as a result of falling prices on the stock exchanges last year. According to the central bank, the assets of private households in the form of cash, securities, bank deposits and claims against insurance companies were around 7,254 billion euros at the end of the year, well below the record value of 7,624 billion euros at the end of 2021.