Click to play videoMumbai: India's millions are growing. And so are its millionaires. A report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch says there was a 20 per cent increase last year in the number of High Net Worth Individuals in India - people worth over $1 million.
The report says there were over one lakh of the Indian high-fliers in 2006 which makes India's millionaire growth rate the second fastest in the world, after Singapore, where the growth was 21 per cent.
But it's not just India and Singapore. The population of millionaires in the world rose 8.3 per cent last year, from 8.7 million in 2005 to 9.6 million. The wealth held by the world’s millionaires is now $37.2 trillion.
They get the big bucks from mostly from real estate. Some of them are said to have even liquidated other investments to fund property opportunities. In the Asia Pacific region alone, millionaires held about 29 per cent of their assets in real estate, against 16 per cent in 2005.
They are also pumping in their money into what Capgemini and Merrill call Passion Investments, which includes art, jewellery and other collectibles.
For instance in the past year in the passion investment category - they have put in 20 per cent in art, 26 per cent in luxury collectibles and 18 per cent in jewellery.
And what's the trend for this year?
Merrill and Cap Gemini expect a slowdown in economic growth rates and therefore a fall in the growth of millionaires to 6.8 per cent from 8.3 per cent. So, being a millionaire this year might be tougher than it was last year.
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