The number of millionaires in India — people with liquid assets of over $1 million — shot up 51 per cent in 2009 to 1.27 lakh.
The growth is attributed to a combination of many factors — the government’s stimulus package, strong growth in the economy and a booming stock market.
These figures are based on market capitalisation and net investible assets owned by individuals.
The rate of increase was the second highest in all of Asia Pacific, after Hong Kong.
In 2008 the number of HNWI was 84,000.
“In India the strong rebound in HNWI numbers is highly correlated to the strong recovery in the stock market prices and strong outlook for India’s underlying economy,” said Mr Pradeep Dholakia, chairman Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, India.
Merrill Lynch and Capgemini released the 14th annual world wealth report on Wednesday.
The number of HNWIs in the world returned to 10 million in 2009 and the wealth increased by 18.9 per cent to $39 trillion.
North America had the single largest number of HNWIs with 3.1 million, accounting for 31 per cent of the global HNWIs population. The Asia-Pacific region was home to eight of the world’s ten fastest growing HNWIs population. China rose 31 per cent to 4,77,000 as the Chinese stock market capitalisation grew more than 100 per cent in 2009 and the economy grew at 8.7 per cent.
The US, Japan and Germany together accounted for 53.5 per cent of the world’s HNWIs population in 2009, down slightly from 54 per cent in 2008.
Mr R. Vaidyanath of Capgemini India said that the wealth is being spent on passion, art and luxury collection, which has increased from 27 per cent to 30 per cent. It is also going into philanthropy. Mumbai had the largest number of HNWIs followed by Delhi.