Coronavirus, business and the rich: Millions of people around the world became millionaires during the pandemic

Anthony Shorrocks, economist and author of the Global Wealth Report, said the pandemic had an "acute short-term impact on global markets," but added that this was "largely reversed by the end of June 2020."

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"Next year at this time we will be millionaires", one of the famous lines from the series "Mućke", Photo: BBC
"Next year at this time we will be millionaires", one of the famous lines from the series "Mućke", Photo: BBC
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

More than five million people became millionaires around the world in 2020 despite the economic and financial crisis caused by the corona virus pandemic.

While many of the poor became poorer, the number of millionaires increased by 5,2 million to 56,1 million worldwide, according to a study by Credit Suisse (Credit Suisse).

In 2020, more than one percent of adults worldwide became millionaires for the first time.

The recovery of the stock markets and the jump in real estate prices helped to increase their wealth.

Wealth creation appears to be "completely unaffected" by the pandemic's economic woes, researchers said.

Anthony Shorrocks, economist and author of the Global Wealth Report, said the pandemic had an "acute short-term impact on global markets", but added that this was "largely reversed by the end of June 2020".

"Global wealth not only withstood such turmoil, but actually increased rapidly in the second half of the year," he said.

However, wealth gaps among adults widened in 2020, and Shorrocks said that if asset price increases, such as house price increases, are removed from the analysis, "then perhaps global household wealth has declined."

"In the lower ranges of wealth, where financial resources are less prevalent, wealth has largely stagnated, and in many cases, regressed," he said.

"We should expect that over time some of the basic factors will correct themselves.

"For example, interest rates will start to rise again at some point, and that will lower asset prices."

Total global wealth grew by 7,4 percent, according to the report.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the number of people with incomes between US$10.000 and US$100.000 has more than tripled - from 507 million in 2000 to 1,7 billion in mid-2020.

The researchers said the increase reflected "the growing prosperity of developing economies, particularly China, and the expansion of the middle class in the developing world".

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Nanette Heschler-Feudherb, Chief Investment Officer at Credit Suisse, said: "There is no denying that the actions taken by governments and central banks to help individuals and businesses most affected by the pandemic and interest rate cuts have successfully avoided the global sovereign debt crisis." scope ".

She added: "The central banks lowered interest rates probably had the biggest impact."

"That's the main reason stock prices and house prices have boomed, and that's directly reflected in our estimates of household wealth."

But she added that these interventions "came at a great cost".

"Public debt relative to gross domestic product (GDP) has risen worldwide by 20 percentage points or more in many countries.


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