Asia gets a new billionaire every 3 days

Billionaires on average became poorer last year as their collective fortunes shrank, even as Asia continued to crank out a new billionaire nearly every three days, a study released on Thursday found.

China accounts for 71% of Asia's new billionaires according to the report. Out of the 113 Asian entrepreneurs who reached billionaire status last year, 80 were from China, the report says. Outside China, but within Asia, Hong Kong and India had the highest number of new billionaires at 11 each, according to the report.

Transfers of assets within families, falling commodity prices and a stronger dollar helped reduce total billionaire wealth by $300 billion in 2015 to $5.1 trillion.



That meant the average billionaire -- there were 1,397 of them, a net gain of 50 over 2014 -- was worth only $3.7 billion, the survey of 14 big markets by Swiss wealth manager UBS and advisory group PwC discovered.

"After more than 20 years of unprecedented wealth creation, the Second Gilded Age has stalled," the report found.

The United States added only a net five billionaires as 41 joined and 36 dropped out of the ranks of the ultra-rich. China alone, buoyed by its tech sector, minted 80 new billionaires.



 

It estimated that fewer than 500 people will hand over $2.1 trillion -- a sum the size of India's economy -- to their heirs in the next 20 years.