Australia’s median wealth is the world’s highest, according to a report unveiled yesterday by Credit Suisse.
The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2011 measured the wealth of the world’s 4.5 billion adults.
Australia’s median wealth, the midpoint of the range of richest adult to poorest, was US$222,000, and the nation’s average wealth was US$397,000, the world’s second highest after Switzerland with US$540,010.
Going forward, financial advisers and private bankers have little to worry about.
Credit Suisse head of research for private banking and asset management Giles Keating said Australia had, by far, the highest wealth per adult in the Asia-Pacific region.
Australia’s savings ratio has risen sharply owing to a combination of jitters over the prolonged volatility evident in global financial markets and the nation’s relatively high interest rates.
Asked whether consumers’ unwillingness to spend could slow domestic economic growth and derail the rise in the nation’s wealth, Keating said it was unlikely.
“Obviously, wealth has risen very rapidly in Australia. It’s actually very healthy, to my mind, that an element of that wealth is being used to reduce leverage ratios,” he said.
“I don’t see it as inhibiting the medium-term growth potential. In the very short-term cyclical sense, it may hold the economy back, but that’s just short-term economic management.
“In the medium term, I see it as a natural reaction to the very rapid growth in wealth that has occurred.”
Australia is home to 4 per cent of the world’s millionaires, although it has only 0.4 per cent of the world’s adults.
It has also lucked out in terms of geographical position. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to overtake Europe in five years when its wealth is projected to rise to US$118 trillion, topping Europe’s US$113 trillion and North America’s US$91 trillion.
