Singapore overtakes Hong Kong as home to Asia’s wealthy

Thursday, 21 June 2012 01:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Singapore overtook Hong Kong as home to Asia’s wealthy last year as declining stock markets hit the former British territory a lot harder than its Southeast Asian rival, according to Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management.

Hong Kong, whose stock market capitalisation slumped 16.7 per cent last year, saw a sharper drop in the ranks of people with more than $1 million to invest as a larger proportion of that wealth was locked in equity.

Southeast Asia also shows stronger signs of resilience to global turbulence than the rest of Asia as buoyant domestic spending offsets struggling exports.

The number of high-net-worth individuals in Hong Kong fell 17.4 per cent to 83,600 last year, compared with a decline of 7.8 per cent to 91,200 people in Singapore, RBC Wealth’s head of emerging markets Barend Janssens told reporters in Singapore on Wednesday.

Hong Kong had leapfrogged Singapore in 2010 after falling behind in 2008.

Faster-growing Asia had for the first time more millionaires than North America last year, according to Capgemini (CAPP.PA) and RBC Wealth’s latest world wealth report released on Tuesday.

The report did not provide estimates on the number of wealthy people in Singapore and Hong Kong. Singapore, home to more Indonesian millionaires than Jakarta, has in recent years also attracted many rich people from around the world, including Facebook (FB.O) co-founder Eduardo Saverin who earlier this year gave up his US citizenship.

Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event including Valentine ’s Day. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Flower Bouquets, Clothing, Watches, Lingerie, Gift Sets and Jewellery. Also if you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.