Asia to add 1.66 million millionaires by 2015: study

A participant walks past a poster at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong January 20, 2010.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asia will add 1.66 million dollar-millionaires by 2015, taking the total number of wealthy to 2.82 million as the world's fastest-growing major economies of China and India continue to mint millionaires, a report from Julius Baer said on Wednesday.

The Swiss wealth manager forecast that the wealth of high networth individuals (HNIs), those with $1 million or more in investable assets, would nearly triple to $15.8 trillion in the five years to 2015.

China alone would be home to nearly half of the millionaires in Asia with combined wealth of $8.8 trillion. The world's most populous nation had 502,000 million HNIs with investable assets totaling $2.6 trillion, the report said.

India would more than double the number of HNIs to 403,000 by 2015, while Indonesia would see the highest growth rate in the number of wealthy, up by a quarter to 99,000, the first such report from Julius Baer said.

The wealth manager forecast that China and India would collectively contribute 40 percent to global growth for 2011 and 2012.

RANKS OF THE RICH BY 2015

Country No of HNIs (1,000) Wealth of HNIs ($bln)

China 1378 8764

India 403 2465

Indonesia 99 487

Philippines 38 164

Thailand 128 609

South Korea 310 1074

Malaysia 68 329

Taiwan 136 593

Hong Kong 131 711

Singapore 129 616

Total 2820 15812

(Reporting by Nishant Kumar; Editing by Chris Lewis)