A slump in oil prices and a strong mandate given to the NDA government in last year's Parliamentary elections have led to a massive increase in fortunes of wealthy people in India, with their number rising to 1.98 lakh in 2014. The country is now home to the 11th largest population of millionaires globally, with the total number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) increasing by 26.3% last year.
"The election of a popular reform minded Prime Minister helped to boost investor confidence and contributed to strong performance in the stock market, with a 21.9% increase in the MSCI Index. Lower oil prices helped reduce country's budget deficit and retail inflation fell considerably," NDTV Profit reported, citing a report released by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management.
The report, titled 'World Wealth Report 2015', said that HNWI count in India went up to 1,98,000 in 2014 compared to 1,56,000 in the previous year.
The US topped the list with 43,51,000 millionaires, followed by Japan with an HNWI population of 24,52,000. Germany and China stood at third and fourth with 11,41,000 and 8,90,000 HNWIs respectively. Over 60% of the worldwide HNWIs resided in the top four countries.
A robust economic growth and a surge in stock market performance churned out 920,000 new millionaires globally last year. Overall, the number of super rich people rose to 14.6 million in 2014.
With Asia Pacific region accounting for a significant part of worldwide HNWI growth since 2006, India and China occupied 43% of the $7.4 trillion of HNWI wealth. "Continued growth is expected to result in India and China holding over 10 per cent of all global HNWI wealth by 2017," the report added.
