In Russia, not only the retirement age and taxes are rising, but also the number of rich citizens – last year it increased by 4%

The world economy, despite warnings from investors and analysts, is growing, and with it the number of high-net-worth individuals (HNWI, high-net-worth individual). Last year, their combined wealth rose 10.6%, surpassing the $70 trillion mark for the first time, according to the 2018 World Wealth Report, which was prepared by Capgemini, a consulting firm, and was made available to Forbes. The company predicts that global HNWI wealth will exceed $100 trillion by 2025.

Not only has the total wealth of rich people around the world grown, but so has their number. In India, for example, it increased immediately by 20% – from 219,000 to 263,000. In Russia, the figure was only 4% – from 182,000 to 189,000 people.

Meanwhile, global gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3% in 2017 after growing by 2.3% in 2016. A rebound in trade and manufacturing – combined with stabilizing commodity prices – has boosted emerging economies, leading to strong global HNWI growth in 2017, analysts explain.

At the same time, job and wage growth in the United States drove its GDP growth of 2.3 percent in 2017, up from 1.6 percent in 2016. Key markets include Germany and France (up 2.5% and 2%, respectively). Asia-Pacific movers China and Japan accelerated from 2016, with growth rates of 6.9% and 1.7%, respectively, in 2017.

As last year, wealthy individuals invested their own money efficiently (returns on investments averaged over 20%), with Latin American and Asia-Pacific investors (excluding Japan) performing best.

Overall, asset allocation was largely traditional last year, except for a surge of enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies, with 29% of HNWIs worldwide saying they were interested in them. While legislative uncertainty and some caution to this point have hampered cryptocurrency penetration in wealth management, strong demand from younger HNWIs is likely to make asset management companies look more closely at them, analysts say.