Contrary to what one might have imagined a year ago pandemic, wealth increased 7.4% in 2020, in total 418.13 trillion US dollars in the economy of families around the world. In addition, 5.2 million people last year accumulated enough assets to become part of a select group of millionaires, whose current number is 56.1 million.
The numbers were mainly driven North America (10%) e Europe (9.85%)According to the annual World Wealth Report prepared by the Bank Swiss credit. On the other hand, the families Latin america e India They saw their fortunes decline last year, with negative variances of 10.1% and 4.4%, respectively, as their currencies depreciated against dollar.
The main explanation for the increase in family wealth is that, unlike what happened during 2008 financial crisisGovernments and central banks have taken swift action to mitigate the crisis. In addition, among the reasons for the increase in wealth are the continuous growth of stock exchanges, which reached record levels at the end of 2020, as well as the rise in the value of stock exchanges. real estate sectorDriven by the low interest rates and savings achieved by families during the siege periods.
In the chapter devoted to showing the distribution of wealth across countries, Credit Suisse mentioned that millionaires from Germany, Australia, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, China, Canada, the Netherlands and Italy prefer their currencies to rise against the dollar.
Although the decline in the number of millionaires was not significant worldwide – on the contrary, in the final balance, the number of millionaires is greater than in 2019 – Brazil is highlighted for being the country that lost the most representatives. Of the 315,000 people who had assets of more than $1 million in 2019, only 207,000 remained at the end of 2020.
In the second and third place of the countries that lost the largest number of millionaires, comes India – which fell from 764 thousand to 698 thousand – and Russia (from 313 thousand to 269 thousand). The countries with the most millionaires were United Statewhich rose from 20.2 million to 21.9 million, Germany (from 2.3 million to 2.9 million) and Australia (From 1.4 million to 1.8 million).
inequality
Credit Suisse also notes that the pandemic has led to broad increases in inequality around the world. While the poorer groups had to use their savings or even increase their debt due to the crisis, the richer groups were less affected by the low level of economic activity, or more importantly, they may have benefited from lower interest rates at central banks.
However, the increase in inequality is more a result of the actions taken (or not) to mitigate its impact than a direct result of the epidemic itself.
In general, income inequality is high in all countries but exceptionally high in others, the report notes. For example, if a Gini index, which measures this variance, is in the 70s, it is considered “relatively low,” while an index above 80 is considered “relatively high.” Brazilian Gini index at 89 points. / With information from EFE
