Richest 1% own 51.5% of India’s wealth

MUMBAI: India’s super rich own 51.5% of the country’s wealth, according to the latest data on global wealth released by Credit Suisse Group AG. The wealth of the richest 1% rose from 45.10% in 2017. Meanwhile, the share of the richest 10% of the population also rose to 77.40% from 73.30%.

Personal wealth in India continued to be dominated by property and other real assets like gold. In India, 91% of estimated household investments are in non-financial assets in line with other developing countries.

Though debt has increased for the first time in double-digits to around 11%, overall household debt as a proportion of assets in India is lower than in most developed countries. In India, over 90% of the adult population has wealth below $10,000 while 0.6% of adults have a net worth over $100,000.

According to the report, India has estimated 3,43,000 dollar millionaires, sixth highest in the world, after US, China, Germany, UK and Japan. Last year the number of dollar millionaires was 2,45,000. Total wealth of the super rich touched around $6 trillion.

There are 3,400 individuals with wealth over $50 million.

In terms of wealth distribution, Indians are heavily concentrated in the lower wealth segment accounting for over a quarter of people in the bottom half of the distribution whereas China dominates the upper middle section of the global wealth distribution.