In Italy and around the world, the number of rich people, as well as inequality, is set to increase. In Italy today, 307,000 families, 1.2 percent of the total, account for 20.9 percent of financial wealth in the form of stocks, bonds, deposits and cash instruments. The data come from Global Wealth 2017 report, prepared by the financial consulting firm Boston Consulting Group.
The report explains that in the coming years there will be a slight enlargement of wealth. In 2021, it is expected that the number of millionaire Italian families will increase to 433,000 (1.6 percent of total) with a share of wealth equal to 23.9 percent. Globally, the number of millionaire households grew by 7 percent in a year, to around 18 million. And global wealth is much more concentrated than it is here: 1 percent of households owns 45 percent of the total wealth.
Again taking into account the global data, among the millionaire families, 12 percent hold assets exceeding $1 million, and, in 2021, the percentage will rise to 16 percent. The fastest growth will be in the group of families with a wealth between $1 million and $20 million (increase of 6.1 percent on average per year) followed by the super rich — assets over $100 million — with a 4.6 percent rate of increase in the year.
Private financial wealth continues to race around the world, with growing annual rates per year. Globally, the race at Wall Street and other major stock markets led the total value of stocks, bonds and bank deposits to the astronomical figure of $166.5 trillion in 2016. Compared to 2015, the increase was 5.3 percent, higher than the 4.4 percent recorded the previous year. In 2021, it should reach the amount of $223.1 trillion, with an average annual growth of 6 percent, resulting in equal parts by the creation of new wealth and the revalorization of existing assets.
The increase of private wealth is widespread in geographical terms, “but, once again, the Asia-Pacific area scored the fastest development,” the BCG report says. “The increase was 9.5 percent, under the double digits achieved in previous years (from 2011 to 2015, the average was 12 percent) but it is still high enough to project it will overtake Western Europe as the second richest market.” The area including the United States, Canada and Mexico recorded a robust increase of 4.5 percent, higher than in Western Europe, which amounted to 3.2 percent. Meanwhile, global financial wealth grew by 5.3 percent and, in Europe, as mentioned, by 3.2 percent, Italy recorded the opposite, with a slight setback.
