Hong Kong: The number of millionaires grew by 22.7 percent in India and 20.3 percent in China last year as the ranks of wealthy in the Asia-Pacific region swelled to 2.8 million, according to a report by wealth management company Merrill Lynch Friday.

Vietnam saw the fastest growth in millionaire numbers with a 24.2 percent increase although its overall number of high net worth individuals with assets worth over $1 million was just 1,200.

In 2007, China had 415,000 millionaires and India 123,000,the report said. The country with the most millionaires in the region, however, was Japan with 1.51 million, a 2.2 percent increase on 2006. South Korea's millionaire population grew by 18.9 percent to 118,000 while Indonesia's grew by 16.8 percent to 23,000,Singapore's by 15.3 percent to 77,000 and Hong Kong's by 10.2 percent to 95,000.

After Japan, the countries with the slowest growth in millionaire numbers were Taiwan, up 7.8 per cent to 71,000 and Australia, up 7.1 percent to 172,000.

The report by Merrill Lynch and consulting company Capgemini found that Asia-Pacific's growth in millionaire numbers was 6 percent above the global average.

The region now has five of the 10 fastest growing high net worth individual populations in the world, according to the report titled The State of Asia Pacific's Wealth.

In 2007,the number of "super-rich" people with assets of $30 million or more grew by 16.4 percent to 20,400 people in Asia-Pacific, nearly double the 8.8 percent global growth.

Millionaires in Hong Kong tend to be the richest with the average high net worth individual having assets of $5.4 million, followed by China with $5.1 million and Singapore with $4.9 million.

In Vietnam, the average US dollar millionaire has $4 million, in Indonesia and India $3.6 million, in Taiwan $3.3 million, Australia $3.2 millionand South Korea $2.7 million.

The region's millionaires had assets totaling $9.5 trillion last year and the report predicts that figure will grow to $13.9 trillion, growing at an average rate of 7.9 percent. "While growth prospects in the near term may be compromised by the global slowdown, the long term potential is strong," the report concluded. "Asia-Pacific is expected to grow faster than the 7.7 percent projected growth per annum through 2012. This will result in Asia-Pacific replacing Europe as the second largest regional repository of high net worth individual wealth."

Source : IANS