Luxury fair »Millionaire Fair« (2008): A good 20,000 fewer millionaires in Germany

Photo: Andreas Gebert/ picture-alliance/ dpa

Many rich people around the globe have felt the effects of the slump in stock markets over the past year. According to data from the consulting firm Capgemini, the number of people worldwide who have investable assets of at least one million US dollars fell by 3.3 percent to 21.7 million within a year.

The total value of these people's assets shrank by 3.6 percent year-on-year to $83 trillion. This was the sharpest decline in more than ten years in both categories, Capgemini classified: "This was caused by geopolitical as well as macroeconomic uncertainties."

In Germany, the club of dollar millionaires shrank by 2021,2022 people from 20 to 900 to a good 1.61 million members. Their total assets fell by 2.2 percent to just over $6.1 trillion. A year earlier, it had risen by 7.4 percent to around 6.3 trillion dollars.

In Europe as a whole, the wealth of dollar millionaires shrank by 3.2 percent year-on-year to $18.2 trillion. According to the report, the North America region recorded the sharpest decline in assets, falling by 7.4 percent to 25.6 trillion dollars.

According to the evaluation, Germany maintains third place in the ranking of countries with the most dollar millionaires despite declining numbers: The USA is still at the top with a good 6.9 million people in this category (2021: 7.46 million), ahead of Japan with 3.55 (3.65) million. China ranks fourth, with just under 1.5 (around 1.54) million high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs).

Allianz and Bundesbank come to similar conclusions

In its "World Wealth Report", which has been compiled annually since 1997, Capgemini takes into account equities, fixed-income securities, alternative investments such as private equity, cash and real estate, provided that they are not used by the company itself. Collections or consumer goods are not included.

Other analyses confirm the trend shown by Capgemini: The insurer Allianz, which annually publishes a study on the development of global financial assets, predicted the trend reversal for 2022 as early as October. Allianz expected global financial assets to decline by more than two percent – the first significant loss of assets since the 2008 financial crisis.

With regard to Germany, the Bundesbank came to the conclusion for 2022 that people in this country lost billions in total as a result of price falls on the stock markets last year. According to calculations by the Bundesbank, the assets of private households in the form of cash, securities, bank deposits and claims against insurance companies amounted to around 7254 billion euros at the end of the year, well below the record level of 7624 billion euros at the end of 2021. Germany's leading index, the Dax, lost 12.3 percent of its value last year. The MDax index for medium-sized stocks even recorded a minus of 28.5 percent.

For its »World Wealth Report«, Capgemini evaluates statistical data from various countries as well as international organisations such as the World Bank. In addition, there are surveys of wealthy people and asset managers. The World Wealth Report 2023 covers 71 markets, accounting for more than 98 percent of global gross national income and 99 percent of global market capitalization, according to the consulting firm.

mamk/dpa