India, China overtake European countries in consumer wealth

Post-recession, emerging markets like India and China have overtaken European countries like Germany and France in consumer wealth as their robust economic growth changes personal fortunes of households, especially those with high investible assets, says an ‘investor affluence’ survey whose findings were released on Thursday.

This is the biggest ever study of global investor affluence, said TNS which conducted the study. TNS is a leading global player in market research.

?Emerging markets now rival their developed counterparts in terms of the amount that people have to invest. UAE and India appear in the top five countries where the affluent have more than $1 million investable assets on average, alongside Singapore and Hong Kong,? the report said.

Based on interviews with 12,000 people across 24 markets, including China, Brazil and India, the study shows that the growth of developing economic powerhouses is already starting to impact personal fortunes among households with more than $100,000 investable assets.

While the United States still ranks as the world?s most prosperous country, with 31 million affluent households, the study reveals that the emerging economies of India and China have overtaken many European countries in this measure of consumer wealth. ?While incidence of affluence would naturally be higher in small, wealthy countries like Luxemburg (29%) and Singapore (20%), there are huge contrasts in markets with large populations; while 27% of the US are affluent this falls to around 1% in India and China. This demonstrates a great contrast in wealth distribution within emerging markets, even where the actual number of affluent households is high and highlights a need for very precise marketing strategies to reach the right audience,? the report says.

?India and China have already surpassed major European markets like Germany and France. It?s interesting to see that the entrepreneurial spirit of people in these markets is already paying off in terms of personal wealth,? Reg van Steen, TNS’s director for business and finance, said.