The coronavirus is being more lenient with the fortunes of millionaires and supermillions than with the economy at large. The pandemic has not significantly altered the volume of its accounts or the number of people included in these exclusive groups. By mid-2020, the number of millionaires (in dollars) reached 51.82 million individuals, representing a decline of just 56,000 millionaires in the first six months of the year, according to Credit Suisse data. In Spain, the entity estimates that the number of supermillionaires was reduced by 78 people to 1,882, compared to 1,960 last year.
The supermillionaires are those with more than $50 million and, according to the Swiss bank’s Global Wealth Report 2020, the total figure as of June was 155,688 lucky, 122 less than at the beginning of January but 16,640 more than at the beginning of 2019.
The US remains the country with the highest number of millionaires (those with at least $1 million), with $20.27 million in June 2020, after increasing the number by 58,000 people in the first half of the year; China ranks behind with a total of 6.15 million millionaires, an increase of 365,000 since January, while the UK lost between January and June 241,000 million, to 2.11 million.
The document also notes the unequal distribution of world wealth, as this 1% of the world’s population with at least $1 million owns 43.4% of the wealth, when 34% of the population whose assets range from $10,000 to $100,000 owns 14.7% of the wealth, while 53.6%, those with assets under $10,000 own just 1.4% of the world’s wealth.
Inequality also refers to differences between countries. As reflected in the study, the impact on certain groups is easier to identify: low-skilled people, women, minorities, youth and small businesses have been greatly affected, while those linked to the few sectors that have thrived during the pandemic, such as the technological one, have benefited.
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The authors emphasize that 2019 was an exceptional year for wealth creation, with a total increase of $36.3 billion (30.694 million euros), which the start of the pandemic would cut by about $17.5 billion (14.8 billion euros), although since March the uptick in stock markets and house prices allowed the total amount of family wealth to be placed slightly above the level of end of the last year, while wealth per adult is still somewhat below.
“Given the damage inflicted by Covid-19 on the world economy, it should be noted that the wealth of families has gone relatively unscathed,” says Anthony Shorrocks,economist and author of the report, who stresses that wealth acts as a form of self-insurance that families can use in difficult times.
Worldwide, the report estimates that the total wealth of families in the middle of the year was trillion above the January level, an increase of 0.25%.
“When the commitment of governments and central banks became apparent, stock prices began to rise. In some countries, including the United States, initial losses have now been reversed for stock markets, although many countries have not yet fully recovered. From a non-financial perspective, there has been no downward global trend in house prices or real estate in general,” adds Shorrocks.
“To date, the impact of the pandemic on the wealth of families has been minimal. However, lower temporary economic growth, along with changes in the behaviour of businesses and consumers, can lead to a loss of production, unnecessary facilities and sectoral changes that could hinder the accumulation of wealth of families for some time,” warns Nannette Hechler-Fayd’herbe,Director of Investment for International Wealth Management and Global Head of Economics and Research at Credit Suisse.
“These shocks to the world economy lead us to believe that the growth of the wealth of families, at best, will slowly recover from the pandemic throughout 2021,” he added, noting that “among major economies, China is likely to be the clear winner.”
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