India grows richer fastest

India's wealthiest grew richer the fastest last year, and are expected to continue adding more zeros to their notional wealth at the fastest pace in the next decade, according to a New World Wealth report.
Against an average 12 per cent increase in global wealth in 2017, vis-a-vis 2016, India's wealthiest saw their net worth increase by more than twice the global average, at 25 per cent.

In fact, none of the developed countries figure in the top five of the world's best performing wealth markets, from 2016 to 2017.

In the last 10 years, India's wealthiest have seen the second highest growth in their networth among the world's major economies, after China - with India's wealth growth eight times the wealth growth of the US.

Overall, India has seen the fifth highest growth in its wealth in the last 10 years - among countries whose wealth grow by 70 per cent or more.

India's wealth growth in the next decade is expected to be the highest - with the total wealth expected to triple in the next 10 years.

However, wealth inequality in India is quite high, with nearly half of the country's wealth in the hands of 330,400 high net worth individuals (HNWIs) - defined as people with a minimum net assets of $1 million. Ideally, for-socio-economic equality, less than one-third of a country's wealth should be held by HNWIs.