Global Wealth Surges as China Overtakes U.S. with the highest net worth - accounting for a third of world's growth

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Global Wealth Surges as China Overtakes U.S. with the highest net worth - accounting for a third of world's growth
By Bloomberg
15 Nov 2021

That’s one of the takeaways from a new report by the research arm of consultants McKinsey & Co. that examines the national balance sheets of ten countries representing more than 60% of world income.
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“We are now wealthier than we have ever been,” Jan Mischke, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute in Zurich, said in an interview.

Net worth worldwide rose to $514 trillion in 2020, from $156 trillion in 2000, according to the study. China accounted for almost one-third of the increase. Its wealth skyrocketed to $120 trillion from a mere $7 trillion in 2000, the year before it joined the World Trade Organization, speeding its economic ascent.

Richest 10%
The U.S., held back by more muted increases in property prices, saw its net worth more than double over the period, to $90 trillion.

In both countries — the world’s biggest economies — more than two-thirds of the wealth is held by the richest 10% of households, and their share has been increasing, the report said.

As computed by McKinsey, 68% of global net worth is stored in real estate. The balance is held in such things as infrastructure, machinery and equipment and, to a much lesser extent, so-called intangibles like intellectual property and patents.

‘Side Effects’
The steep rise in net worth over the past two decades has outstripped the increase in global gross domestic product and has been fueled by ballooning property prices pumped up by declining interest rates, according to McKinsey. It found that asset prices are almost 50% above their long-run average relative to income. That raises questions about the sustainability of the wealth boom.

“Net worth via price increases above and beyond inflation is questionable in so many ways,” Mischke said. “It comes with all kinds of side effects.”

Surging real-estate values can make home ownership unaffordable for many people and increase the risk of a financial crisis — like the one that hit the U.S. in 2008 after a housing bubble burst. China could potentially run into similar trouble over the debt of property developers like China Evergrande Group.

The ideal resolution would be for the world’s wealth to find its way into more productive investments that expand global GDP, according to the report. The nightmare scenario would be a collapse in asset prices that could erase as much as one-third of global wealth, bringing it more in line with world income.

 

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Global wealth trebles in last 20 years as China overtakes US with the highest net worth - accounting for a third of world's growth
  • China's wealth rocketed to $120 trillion from a slender $7 trillion in 2000
  • The United States saw its net worth double over the same period to $90 trillion
  • Report found that historic link between net worth and GDP has been severed
  • This has been driven by soaring asset prices and declining interest rates
By ROSS IBBETSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 17:14 GMT, 15 November 2021 | UPDATED: 17:22 GMT, 15 November 2021

Global net worth has trebled over the last two decades, with China accounting for a third of its growth, according to a new report.

China's wealth rocketed to $120 trillion from a slender $7 trillion in 2000, the year before it joined the World Trade Organization, accelerating its boom.

The United States, held back by smaller real estate gains, saw its net worth double over the same period to $90 trillion.

In both countries, the world's two largest economies, the top 10 per cent of households owned two-thirds of the wealth, the report by consultancy group McKinsey said.

'We are now wealthier than we have ever been,' Jan Mischke, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute in Zurich, told Bloomberg.

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A graph showing the increase in net worth from the ten countries that account for 60 per cent of global GDP


The report focused on ten countries that together account for about 60 per cent of global GDP: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

China accounted for 50 per cent of the growth in net worth since 2000, followed by the US at 22 per cent.

Japan, which accounted for 31 per cent of wealth across the ten countries 20 years ago, held just 11 per cent of the total in 2020.

A central finding of the report is that the historical link between the growth of wealth - or net worth - and GDP has been broken.

Economic growth has been slow over the last 20 years in these advanced economies, but net worth, which has long been tied to GDP, has soared relative to it.

Net worth ranged from 4.3 times GDP in the US to 8.2 times GDP in China.

This change has emerged as asset prices have shot up and interest rates have gone down.

Asset prices are now almost 50 per cent higher than the long-run average relative to income.

Saving and investment accounted for only 28 per cent of net worth growth.

The colossal rise in asset prices, coupled with weak investment, raises serious concerns about how long global net worth can continue to grow.

'Net worth via price increases above and beyond inflation is questionable in so many ways,' Mischke said. 'It comes with all kinds of side effects.'

Booming real estate prices can make home ownership impossible for many people and increase the risk of a market crash - as happened in 2008 when the US housing bubble burst.

Recently there have been fears that the colossal debt racked up by the Evergrande real estate titan in China could precipitate such a global catastrophe.

The report's authors say that the best resolution to the problem would be for wealth to go towards growth-enhancing investments such as sustainability, affordable housing, digital infrastructure, which then expand global GDP.

The worst case scenario would be if asset prices collapsed, erasing up to a third of global wealth, and bringing it into line with the world's income.

 

xizhimen

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Gravitas: China is now the richest country in the world, but won't stay so for long, wealth leaving China for India
China has surpassed the US to become the richest nation in the world. But can China stay rich? The Communist Party's crackdown on the rich has scared investors. They are now turning to India. Palki Sharma tells you how global investors are now putting more money in India.

 

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