Assets of Middle East's wealthy at $190bln in 2018

UAE - The number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs), as well as their wealth, declined in the UAE last year fell due to a fall in market capitalisation, according to a new study.

The World Wealth Report 2019, published by Capgemini, found that the number of HNWIs fell 6.4 per cent from 54,000 in 2017 to 50,000 last year. Their assets also dropped 8.9 per cent from $190 billion to $170 billion.

HNWIs are defined as those having investable assets of $1 million or more. Knight Frank recently said that the number of millionaires in the UAE increased from 52,344 in 2017 to 53,798 in 2018.

According to Capgemini, the Middle East region recorded an impressive HNWI population and wealth growth numbers, thanks to improving oil prices combined with significant fiscal and structural reforms. Total population of the millionaires in the remained unchanged at 0.7 million. Their wealth grew from $2.5 trillion in 2017 to $2.6 trillion in 2018.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait demonstrated impressive growth on account of improving GDP growth and strong financial market performance. In Saudi Arabia, HNWI population and wealth increased seven per cent and four per cent, respectively. While Kuwait registered an increase of eight per cent and six per cent, respectively.

The number of HNWIs in Saudi Arabia increased from 179,000 in 2017 to 191,000 and from 174,000 to 188,000 in Kuwait. Globally, the number of millionaires declined 0.3 per cent to 18 million while their wealth declined three per cent or $2.1 trillion year-on-year to $68.1 trillion in 2018 largely due to a drop in wealth in the Asia-Pacific region (specifically China) while Europe accounted for about one-quarter of the overall decline or $500 billion.