India, China’s household wealth rise amid pandemic: Credit Suisse report

Household wealth
sustained and even augmented in India and China despite monumental decline in
individual wealth amid the global pandemic, according to Credit Suisse Group AG’s 2020 Global Wealth Report released on Thursday.

According to Bloomberg, one of
the crucial findings of the report suggest that the global wealth picked
up in June with an addition to $1 trillion post the initial plunge in the first
quarter due to government and central bank’s measures to salvage the
COVID-19 economic offshoot.

Articulating that the report’s
discoveries are based on second quarter’s interim household balance sheets
discharged by a few countries, Anthony Shorrocks, economist and one of the report’s
authors said, “Considering the ravages of coronavirus pandemic on world’s
economy, keeping the household wealth relatively intact seems pretty remarkable.”

Only India and China witnessed gains by 1.6% and 4.4%, respectively, in the household wealth during first half of 2020 while Latin America bore maximum loss with a 13% drop as currency depreciation exacerbated GDP losses.

Global wealth formation is
expected to rebound in 2021 as the world economy shows sign of recovery except for
North America, where economy is faltered because of ‘continued slowdown’ due to
high frequency of coronavirus transmission in the US and wealth per adult is
estimated to drop by 5%, says the report.

According to the report, wealth
per adult slipped to an average $76,984 from $77,309 at the beginning of the
year. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Taipei and Hong Kong saw gains, while
Norway and the UK posted the biggest declines

The observations come as
wealth gains, especially in the US tech world, had been under keen scrutiny
as millions lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 hit.

Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos
, world’s richest person accumulated more than $73 billion this year, taking
his wealth to $188 billion, according to the Bloomberg billionaires Index.
Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg has gained $27 billion to more than $105
billion, while the rise of Zoom Video Communications Inc. has augmented chairman
Eric Yuan’s net worth by $22 billion.

Overall, the world’s 500
richest people have added $970 billion to their combined wealth this year, the Bloomberg
index shows.

Insinuating at many economic ups
and downs, Credit Suisse’s chief investment officer for international wealth
management and global head of the economics and research unit said, “Among
the major economies, China is likely to be the clear winner.”