India sees 50% jump in millionaire exodus in 2016
Australia tops destination country for the ultra-rich
Around 6,000 millionaires left India in 2016, mostly for countries such as the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. This figure stood at 4,000 in 2015 and 6,000 in 2014. Since 2000, 69,000 high net-worth individuals in India have changed their domicile, according to New World Wealth’s latest report on global wealth and wealth migration trends in 2016, The 2017 Global
Wealth Review.
Around 6,000 millionaires left India in 2016, mostly for countries such as the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
This figure stood at 4,000 in 2015 and 6,000 in 2014.
Since 2000, 69,000 high net worth individuals in India have changed their domicile, according to New World Wealth’s latest report on global wealth and wealth migration trends in 2016, The 2017 Global Wealth Review.
India was placed fourth among the top five sourcecountries for migrating millionaires.
Australia topped the list of countries attracting maximum number of ultra-rich people for the second successive year, beating popular hotspots such as the United States and the United Kingdom. An estimated 11,000 millionaires moved to Australia in 2016, while 10,000 moved to the US and 3,000 to the UK.
The study said global wealth migration accelerated in 2016, with 82,000 millionaires shifting overseas, compared with 64,000 in 2015.
Head of research at New World Wealth Andrew Amoils said the outflow of high net worth individuals from India in 2016 was not a big concern, given that the country produced more new millionaires than it was losing. “Once the standard of living in India improves, we expect several wealthy people to move back.”
India was home to 264,000 millionaires and 95 billionaires, and the wealth held in the country was an estimated $6.2 trillion (as of December 2016), the report said.
Australia’s growing popularity was due to the country’s healthcare system, locational advantages for doing business in emerging Asian countries, insulation from the refugee crisis in Europe, safety and lower inheritance tax, among others, it elucidated.
At the other end of the spectrum, the countries that lost a large number of high net worth individuals in 2016 included France, Turkey and Brazil.
The report said that France – which saw 12,000 millionaires moving out of the country in 2016 — was being severely impacted by rising religious tensions between Christians and Muslims, especially in urban areas. “We expect millionaire migration away from France will accelerate over the next decade as these tensions escalate. In our view, other European countries where religious tensions are starting to emerge, such as Belgium, Germany, Austria, the UK, Holland and Sweden, will also be negatively affected in the near future,” the report said.
Commenting on the adverse impact of millionaires leaving a country, the report noted this has a negative impact on the local currency, the local stock market and the property market. “Millionaires employ large numbers of people. Around 30 per cent of millionaires are business owners.” This also has an impact on local consumption of goods and services and tax collection, it added.