Singapore’s count of millionaires could increase by more than 60% over the five years from 2020 to 2025, according toCredit Suisse Group AG, part of a surge in millionaires expected in Asia as financial capitals emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The city-state may have 437,000 millionaires by 2025 compared with 270,000 in 2020, according to the bank’s2021 Global Wealth Report. That 62% pace would be faster than Hong Kong’s estimated 60% for the same period, but slower than the growth forecast in mainland China, India, Australia, South Korea and Tawian.
Singapore’s millionaire density -- or percentage of millionaires in the total population -- was 5.5% in 2020, the second-highest in Asia after Hong Kong’s 8.3%, the report said. The island nation’s Gini coefficient -- a more broad-based measure of wealth inequality -- was at 78.3 in 2020, much higher than Japan’s 64.4, South Korea’s 67.6 and Taiwan’s 70.8.
The wealth share of the top 1% in Singapore was almost 34% at the end of 2020, compared with 18% for Japan, 24% for South Korea and 28% for Taiwan. In a small country like Singapore, higher wealth inequality can result from an unrepresentative cluster of very high net-worth individuals, the report said.