In 2023, individual household wealth increased at the fastest rate in local currency terms in Qatar and Turkey as global wealth recovered from the effects of inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the low value of the lira playing a part, wealth per adult increased by 157% in local currency terms in Türkiye, but it also increased by 63% in dollar terms.
According to the report, growth in both Qatar and Russia during the same period was approximately 20% in local currency terms.
Since the start of UBS’s research in 2008, Turkey has experienced the greatest growth in average wealth per adult in local currency terms, with growth of 1708% to 2023. At the presentation of UBS Global Wealth Management’s annual Global Wealth Report, economist Samuel Adams noted that during the epidemic, family wealth in Qatar, like other Gulf governments with a currency tethered to the dollar, saw one of the biggest declines.
The economy and household wealth have both shown signs of revival over the past few years, which includes 2023. This indicates that Qatar’s wealth growth rate has been very robust lately, surpassing that of Saudi Arabia, which saw wealth stagnant last year while not seeing the same contraction in 2020. Similarly, the UAE witnessed some wealth rise the previous year but not as dramatically as Qatar.
According to Adams, Qatar’s growth story is one of a nation returning to its historical pattern rather than a dramatic break from the rest of the area.
In Five Years, Where Will Millionaires Reside?
The number of United States dollar millionaires is predicted to rise at the quickest rate in Taiwan from 2023 to 2028, rising by 47% to 1.158 million. Turkey is predicted to expand at the fastest rate, rising by 43% to 87,000.
During that time, there will be 461,000 more millionaires in Russia, a 21% rise. There is expected to be a 15% growth in the UAE, reaching 232,000, and a 14% growth in Qatar, reaching 30,000. There will be a decline in the Netherlands and the UK, of 4% to 1.179 million and 17% to 2.542 million, respectively.
Russia’s local currency wealth is increasing. After the rouble fluctuated more wildly, reaching lows in March 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s wealth declined in US dollars during 2023.
Despite the difficulties the nation has suffered as a result of Western sanctions, wealth per adult increased in local currency terms, a development that UBS attributed to the fact that conflict economies do not often cause household wealth to decline.
According to chief economist Paul Donovan, structural shifts and the unexpected windfalls brought about by innovation have made wealth an increasingly salient political issue.
He claimed that after declining between 2021 and 2022, global wealth began to rise again in 2023. 2022 saw a decline in global wealth on three separate occasions since the report’s inception fifteen years prior.
The growth of economic nationalism, he lamented, “as well as global financial flows, the mobility of wealth throughout the world is also going to become more of a political preoccupation.”
Money rose at a global average rate of 4.2% even after accounting for the impact of currency rates and the strength of the dollar, which contributed to the wealth recovery in 2023.
The regions that experienced the fastest growth were Asia Pacific (4.4%), the Americas (3.6%), and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), at 4.8%.
Adams stated that whereas 2022 brought about economic turmoil, increased interest rates, and a decline in economic activity, 2023 has witnessed a steady return to normalcy.
Are Wealthy Moving From UK To UAE?
The EMEA’s wealth growth doubled the pre-pandemic average in 2023, with Western Europe contributing 84% of the region’s total wealth.
According to Donovan, there are currently more millionaires in the United Kingdom than there are in the country for the size of its economy. This will change as wealth redistribution takes place.
According to him, restrictions on international money flows will cause a change that will outweigh the natural increase in the number of millionaires, and the abnormally high number in the United Kingdom will be balanced.
Although there are no reasons for the rich to leave a nation, there are push and pull factors at play in the United Kingdom, with changes to non-domiciled tax having little impact and demographic shifts brought on by sanctions against Russia.
“The non-indigenous rich population will always be searching for low tax policies, and that is not a result of UK policy, but rather a result of other countries’ pull factors, whether they be in Singapore, Dubai, or somewhere else,” Donovan stated.