Qatar saw fastest growth in individual household wealth: UBS report
Growth rate of wealth in Qatar has been quite strong outpacing Saudi Arabia, says UBS economist
Published: 14 July 2024
NT Bureau
Doha
Qatar, along with Turkey, saw the fastest growth in individual household wealth in local currency terms in 2023 as global wealth resumed its rising trend following the impacts of the pandemic and inflation, according to the UBS Global Wealth report.
Growth in Qatar and Russia was around 20% in local currency terms during the same period, the report showed.
Türkiye has seen the fastest growth in average wealth per adult in local currency terms since UBS’s report began in 2008, growing 1708% to 2023.
Samuel Adams, economist, UBS Global Wealth Management said at the launch of its annual Global Wealth Report that Qatar, which like other Gulf states has a dollar-pegged currency, saw one of the sharpest falls in household wealth during the pandemic, Zawya, a financial news website said.
The last few years, including 2023, have been a story of recovery, both for the economy and household wealth.
“This has meant that the growth rate of wealth in Qatar has been quite strong most recently, outpacing Saudi Arabia, which didn’t experience the same contraction in 2020, but has seen wealth stagnate last year, and similarly, the UAE saw some wealth growth last year but not as strongly as Qatar.”
The Qatar growth story is of a country returning to its previous trend rather than a sharp divergence with the rest of the region, Adams said.
According to the UBS Wealth report, Taiwan is forecast to see the fastest growth in the number of US dollar millionaires, with the number expected to grow by 47% to 1.158 million from 2023 to 2028, followed by Türkiye, which will see 43% growth to 87,000.
Russia will see its number of millionaires increase by 21% to 461,000 during the same period.
The UAE will see growth of 15% to 232,000, followed closely by Qatar at 14% growth to 30,000.
The Netherlands and the UK will see a decrease, by 4% to 1.179 million and by 17% to 2.542 million respectively.
Chief economist Paul Donovan said wealth is now increasingly a political focus because of structural changes and sudden windfalls being generated through innovation.
Global wealth resumed its rising trend in 2023, he said, having fallen from 2021 to 2022. The global wealth decrease in 2022 was one of only three occasions since the report began 15 years ago.
“Also as we see, regrettably in my view, the rise of economic nationalism, global capital flows, the movement of wealth around the world is also going to become more of a political focus,” he said.
