Credit crunch gulps 25 percent of global super rich

Silicon India

Bangalore: The global population of super rich people, those who have at least $30 million to invest, is reduced by nearly 25 percent in 2008 to 78,000, according to the latest World Wealth Report produced by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. The collective wealth of these super rich people reduced by 24 percent due to credit crunch, banking crisis and government bailouts.

Those individuals, who are worth around $1 million (excluding their home), also suffered a 19.5 percent decline in their wealth. The population of such individuals fell by 15 percent. In year 2005, the number of such rich people was very high but credit crunch has wiped out more than two years of growth. There was no safe place to invest for the investors as markets across the world tumbled, said Nick Tucker, Market Leader for UK & Ireland in Merrill's wealth management arm.

In spite of the negative results of 2008, as the global economies recover the overall wealth is expected to rise to $48,000 billion by 2013. The world's fastest growing economy, China, is suppose to lead the way as it has already surpassed U.K. for the first time in the report's ranking of total number of rich people in country.

Due to the economic slowdown and chaos in financial services industry and the decreasing value of investment properties, the ranks of high net worth individuals in Britain fell by 131,000 to 362,000. On the other hand China now has 364,000 dollar millionaires.