Indians' wealth grew 15% a year since 2000

Hyderabad: The wealth of Indians grew by an average 15 per cent a year since the year 2000, despite bouts of economic crises that the country faced in the last 18 years, claimed Credit Suisse's ‘Global Wealth report’.

The per capita (average) wealth of an Indian adult in 2000 was $1,826. However, in the span of 18 years, it grew to $7,024 in 2018. In the last 18 years, the average wealth increase by $5,198 or 2.84 times, which Credit Suisse considers as a fair growth.

The 15 per cent annual growth in the personal wealth appears quite impressive despite the country witnessing after-effects of several crisis-like scenarios such as dotcom bubble in early 2000, 2008 global slowdown, 2013 taper tantrums and the recent slowdown caused by note ban and GST.

However, if the wealth was adjusted to the prevalent inflation in the country using the income-tax department's cost inflation index, the growth in the last 18 years would be merely 91 per cent. The annual adjusted to inflation growth would be 5.05 per cent a year, which is a fairly good figure.

While the per capita ownership of wealth of Indians is still considerably low due to its massive population, Indian adults own 1.9 per cent of the total global wealth. However, India has a disproportionately higher share in the global adult population at 16.9 per cent.

Despite the calculation of per wealth by Credit Suisse, the wealth distribution in India, as it is seen elsewhere, is not uniform. However, the per capita method is widely used by economists to understand the bigger picture of the economy. But it fails acu-tely if one need to understand the individual's economic prosperity.

Since income and wealth inequalities have been rising in the country since late 1990s, a large part of the rise in wealth might have made the rich richer and enhanced the clout of Indian corporates overseas.

According to the study, women in India have a significantly lower share in the wealth compared to those in the advanced countries. While the women's share in India is between 20 per cent and 30 per cent, those in China is between 30 per cent and 40 per cent.

Analysts have also made a comparative study of India and China because both are densely populated countries.