Overall global wealth is shrinking for the first time since the global financial crisis, decreasing by $12.4 trillion in the past year, largely due to currency fluctuations. At the same time, however, income inequality continues to climb as the top 1 percent of households now "account for half of all assets in the world," Credit Suisse said in its 2015 Global Wealth Report.
It is the first time since 2000 that the gap between the rich and the poor has grown so significantly, possibly at a level "not seen for almost a century," the Swiss investment bank wrote in its annual report, which tries to estimate the financial and physical assets of 4.7 billion people, reported The International Business Times. It found that the poorest half of the world's population owns less than 1 percent of its assets.
Financial assets have seen a 6 percent rise in the share of total wealth since 2008, which mainly benefits the wealthy who hold a disproportionate amount of capital.
Total wealth has doubled since 2000, and the researchers estimate that 34 million people now control $112.9 trillion of assets, or 45.2 percent of the world's wealth, according to CNBC. China saw a fivefold rise in wealth and India had a lower but still sharp growth.
"Wealth inequality changes slowly over time, so it is difficult to identify the drivers of these trends. However, the value of financial assets - especially company securities - is likely to be an important factor because wealthier individuals hold a disproportionate share of their assets in financial form," the report found.
The strengthening U.S. dollar contributed to the contraction of the overall global wealth, which decreased by $12.4 trillion to $250.1 trillion. When valued in dollars, net worth shrunk in every area except North America and China, according to CNBC.
It is the first time global household wealth has fallen since the 2007-2008 economic crisis. The decline also affected the number of millionaires in the world, which climbed from 13.7 million at the turn of the century to 36.1 million in 2014, only to fall back to 33.7 million this year due to exchange rate effects, reports Business Insider.
"The rise of 146 percent (in millionaires) since 2000 reflects population growth and the fact that inflation progressively lowers the bar for membership of the millionaire club. Nevertheless, the number of millionaires has still grown significantly after discounting for these factors," the report said.
