GENEVA, Sept 25: The number of super-rich in Asia is set to reach 2.67 million people by 2015, with a total net worth of an estimated $16.7 trillion, Swiss private bank Julius Baer said on Tuesday.

The findings in the bank’s 2012 Wealth Report focusing on Asia, indicated that the region’s so-called High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) were largely immune from the economic ills affecting the rest of the world. This was because of Asia’s economy, which continued to grow thanks to “domestic demand supported by robust job growth”, the bank said in a statement.

Announcing the survey, which focuses on wealth creation in 10 of Asia’s biggest economies, Julius Baer also, said its HNWI estimate for 2015 represented a compounded annual growth rate of 30 per cent from 2010 estimates. China could be home to 1.46 million super-rich by 2015 with assets of $9.3 billion, the report showed.

Indonesia was on course for a 25pc compounded annual rise in HNWIs — the highest across Asia, thanks to its “flourishing domestic business environment”.

In India, wealth creation was driven by labour moving out of agriculture and by improvements in infrastructure, the report said, while China continued to see growth by redistributing its economic activity.

The report, which also looked at how much it costs to live in luxury in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Mumbai, showed an 8.8 per cent rise in prices since the last estimates.

This “shows clearly that the cost of living in luxury in Asia continues to substantially outpace conventional consumer price index (CPI) measures, which stood at approximately 6 per cent for the same time period”, it said.—AFP