MENA wealth growth pips global average

Global wealth has grown by 30 per cent to $280 trillion in 2017 in 10 years since the onset of the global financial crisis, with the Middle East region recording a faster pace of growth, a new wealth report said.

In the 12 months to mid-2017, global wealth grew at a faster pace than in recent years, with mean wealth per adult reaching a new record high, according to Credit Suisse Research Institute's 2017 Global Wealth Report.

According to the report, global wealth should continue to grow at a similar pace. Based on an updated forecast, global wealth is anticipated to reach $341 trillion by 2022.

In the Mena, total wealth grew by $221 billion or 156 per cent since 2000, above the global average of 140 per cent in terms of total wealth (net of household wealth).

Saudi Arabia ranked first with an estimated wealth of $772 billion, closely followed by the UAE with an estimated wealth of $603 billion. Kuwait and Qatar's total wealth is estimated to be $292 billion and $218 billion respectively. Bahrain's net household wealth is estimated at $34 billion. Egypt's total wealth declined to $178 billion this year, having peaked at $511 billion in 2010, according to the eighth edition of the Global Wealth Report.

In the next five years, household net wealth in the Mena region is expected to increase by a further 52 per cent, or nearly 8.8 per cent annually.
However, wealth per adult net of debt increased by 1.9 per cent in the Mena region compared to the global average of 6.4 per cent.

The UAE's wealth per adult grew by 1.2 per cent to $78,800 since last year. Qatar recorded wealth per adult of $102,517 in mid-2017, while Kuwait followed closely with $97,300. However, while Kuwait saw its wealth per adult increase marginally by 1.4 per cent, Qatar witnessed a marginal drop of 0.2 per cent from mid last year. Wealth per adult in Bahrain saw a steady increase of 2.7 per cent from mid last year to $30,800. Wealth per adult in Saudi Arabia grew by 2.8 per cent touching $35,000 while Egypt's wealth per adult saw a massive drop of 50.2 per cent touching $3,200 pulled down by a drop in value of the Egyptian pound against the dollar.

Total global wealth rose at a rate of 6.4 per cent in the year to mid-2017, the fastest pace since 2012 and reached $280 trillion, a gain of $16.7 trillion.

This reflected widespread gains in equity markets matched by similar rises in non-financial assets, which moved above the pre-crisis year 2007's level for the first time this year. Wealth growth also outpaced population growth, so that global mean wealth per adult grew by 4.9 per cent and reached a new record high of $56,540 per adult.

"A decade since the start of the global financial crisis, we see a significant increase in wealth across all regions of the world," said Urs Rohner, chairman of the Credit Suisse Research Institute and chairman of the board of directors of Credit Suisse Group.

Reporting by Issac John