got existing thread. so dun bother to click this. -mod
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S'pore to be 'City of Millionaires': Barclays survey
Wed, May 07, 2008
The Straits Times
SINGAPORE will have the highest concentration of wealthy households in the world within a decade as economic expansion and the growth of its financial services industry draw investors, said Barclays Plc.Almost 41 per cent, or 436,000, of Singapore's households will have assets of at least $1 million by 2017, compared with 39 per cent in Hong Kong and 28 per cent in Switzerland, according to a survey by Barclays Wealth, the bank's wealth management unit.
Singapore was second in 2007 with 23 per cent, while Hong Kong had 26 per cent, the report said.
Singapore's US$132 billion economy grew last quarter at the fastest pace since 2003 as tax breaks and efforts to draw banks and manufacturers to expand or set up new businesses in the city offset slowing demand for electronics. Growth is expected to moderate this year because of a US slowdown, Bloomberg news reported on Wednesday.'It's a little premature to assume that growth will continue in a straight line, but the underlying trend remains one where Asian countries are generating plenty of economic activity and employment opportunities,' said Song Seng-Wun, an economist at CIMB-GK Securities Pte. in Singapore.
Economic growth elsewhere in Asia is also boosting wealth creation. China, the world?s fastest-growing major economy, is estimated to become the third-wealthiest nation in the world by 2017 by total net worth, lagging behind only the US and Japan, while India will be ranked eighth, according to Barclays Wealth.
'Unprecedented Wealth Creation'
'Not only are we seeing unprecedented wealth creation in Asia, but the structure of the region's economies have fundamentally changed,' Didier von Daeniken, chief executive officer of Barclays Wealth in Asia, said in a press release.'Education, technology and globalization are driving wealth creation, resulting in a shift of economic power to the East.'
Singapore households with more than $1 million held about $672 billion in assets last year, and will grow to US$1.6 trillion by 2017, according to Barclays Wealth.
The survey takes into account assets such as cash, shares, bonds and property.
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non singaporean who never visited the island.
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singapore gahmen suka suka say now ur hdb worth 1million den we all city of millionaire lo.. nothing surprising.. which is why i dun believe in stats.. just twisting things ard..
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Den why i so poor?
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crap crap and crap
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The fact is most sgforumers come from either poor or average income families. That is why threadstarter think the survey is a bullcrap when it's an actual fact. Reality avoidance i would say.
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the pap bought stakes in barclays, so may be the old man lee has influence over the writer of the article to write such crap.
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Originally posted by purpledragon84:
singapore gahmen suka suka say now ur hdb worth 1million den we all city of millionaire lo.. nothing surprising.. which is why i dun believe in stats.. just twisting things ard..
Not true. The survey mentioned assets and not net worth. So you can have $150k down payment to buy a $750k private estate, 20k down payment on car and some on stocks. You get your 1 million worth of asset just like that.
Somemore it's per household. Nothing spectacular.
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Originally posted by forfun_cash:
The fact is most sgforumers come from either poor or average income families. That is why threadstarter think the survey is a bullcrap when it's an actual fact. Reality avoidance i would say.
... Here's the Actual Fact & the REALITY ...
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Income Gap: The different faces of Singapore
(The Star)04 May 2008 by Seah Chiang Nee
The top 10 percent of the population are the rich, who live in wealthy districts, while the bottom 20 percent are the languishers who have difficulty coping with a high cost structured life. The third is the large middle class.
A SINGAPOREAN couple walked into a Lamborghini showroom and bought two units - his and hers - for US$650,000 (RM2.04mil) each.
"It's amazing; young kids coming in and spending S$2mil (RM4.7mil)," the manager told a journalist. "I don't think they were even 30 years old."Last year, 29 of these creme de la creme models were sold countrywide, beating Ferrari (26 cars).
In 2007 a total of 320 luxury cars including Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lotus, Aston Martin and Maserati, were sold to Singapore's new rich.
As the nouveau riche basks in their newfound glory, more Singaporeans from the poorer quarters are approaching the government for food aid.
A growing number of homeless can be seen sleeping in void decks of buildings and, pressed by high living costs, more elderly citizens are working as toilet cleaners or collecting used cans for recycling.
Singapore remains largely a middle class society. The high number of shopping plazas attests to it. But the group may be decreasing as a result of globalisation and runaway prices.
The city-state of 4.7 million people has two - perhaps three - faces. On the top 10 percent are the rich, who live in wealthy districts, own yachts and blow S$10,000 (RM23,209) on a single meal.
At the bottom 20 percent of the population are the languishers who have difficulties coping with a high cost structured life in an international city. The third is the large middle class.
Take the case of Carol John, 27. She doesn't own a bed, sleeps every night on thin mattresses with her three children. Hers is a one-bedroom flat that reeks of urine smell from the common corridor outside.
"I can't save anything, it's so difficult for me," John, who is unemployed, told a reporter. She relies on her husband's S$600 (RM1392) monthly salary and S$100 (RM232) government handout.
She is luckier than others who are homeless - elderly and even entire families - who sleep at void decks or the beach and bathe at public restrooms.
In perspective, Singapore is the second richest country in Asia next to Japan, with a per capita GDP of US$48,900 (RM154,141).
Homeless cases are few, nowhere comparable in number to Osaka's army of vagabonds or New York's bag ladies.
In fact, nine out of 10 poor people in Singapore have their own home, and usually a phone and a refrigerator.
But in the local context, it is a potential minefield of unrest. The proportion of Singaporeans earning less than S$1000 (RM2320) a month rose to 18 percent last year, from 16 percent in 2002, according to central bank data.
The bad part is that life is often worse for the unemployed - compared to other countries - because Singapore has no safety net and no rural hinterland to cushion their suffering.
Unlike in Malaysia or Thailand, a jobless person who cannot cope with the global market has no countryside to retreat to so that he can live off the land.
The problem will get worse. In other words, the rich will get richer and the poor, poorer with the middle class remaining more or less stagnant.
The state's Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, has worsened from 42.5 in 1998 to 47.2 in 2006, which makes it in league with the Philippines (46.1) and Guatemala (48.3), and worse than China (44.7) according to the World Bank.
Other wealthy Asian nations such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan have more European-style Ginis of 24.9, 31.6 and 32.6 respectively.
This is one of the worst failures of the modern People's Action Party, despite its democratic socialism principles.
It was with these that its first generation leaders were able to turn a poor squalid society into a middle class success story.
Economists attribute the major blame to globalisation, which benefits the skilled citizens and the rich but makes it hard for the unskilled, the aged and the sick.
Even the highly educated are not spared.
The use of new instruments like company restructuring, relocation or out-sourcing of workers - unheard of before - is widening the gap and creating more income inequality.
For example, while the proportion of lower income rises, those who earn S$8000 (RM18,570) or more increased from 4.7 percent to 6 percent.
This rising inequality could eventually undermine the bedrock of society - the broad middle class.
Some economists say that the feared erosion of Japan's middle class, first enunciated by Japanese strategist Kenichi Ohmae, may already be happening here.
His country was emerging into a 'M-shape' class distribution, in which a very few middle class people may climb up the ladder into the upper class, while the others gradually sank to the lower classes.
These people suffered a deterioration in living standard, faced the threat of unemployment, or their average salary was dropping, he said.
Gradually, they can only live a way the lower classes live: e.g. take buses instead of driving their own car, cut their budget for meals instead of dining at better restaurants, spend less in consumer goods.
And, Kenichi said, all this might take place while the economy enjoyed remarkable growth and overall wages rose.
However, the wealth increase may concentrate in the pockets of the very few rich people in the society.
The masses cannot benefit from the growth, and their living standard goes into decline.
The Singapore government, which relies on the middle class vote to remain in power, has vowed to make economic gap-levelling its top priority - for survival, even if nothing else.
Star, Malaysia
April 12, 2008
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Originally posted by forfun_cash:
Not true. The survey mentioned assets and not net worth. So you can have $150k down payment to buy a $750k private estate, 20k down payment on car and some on stocks. You get your 1 million worth of asset just like that.
Somemore it's per household. Nothing spectacular.
which in turn supports the point that stats can be manipulated..
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Originally posted by forfun_cash:
Not true. The survey mentioned assets and not net worth. So you can have $150k down payment to buy a $750k private estate, 20k down payment on car and some on stocks. You get your 1 million worth of asset just like that.
Somemore it's per household. Nothing spectacular.
... yah and America's economy is in the pits now also just like that...... it is already well known that Singaporeans are asset rich but cash poor...
... and with the so called CPF, people are stilll at odds when it comes to old age...
... nobody's buying into all these bull crapping surveys from whatever fancy named establishments... !
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other than asset rich and cash poor, some of the 'assets' are not even really assets at all; they depreciate in value over the long term, and serve to drain you of more cash
eg cars
I think they consider COE as an asset as well -.-
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... so looks like this survey serves as a platform basis to Tax the so called 43% of "millionaires" in Singapore higher in time to come...
... there has to be a reason for painting such a beautiful picture...
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Damn.
Are they telling us that HDB flats will all cost one million dollars each in the future?
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Originally posted by HyperFocal:
... yah and America's economy is in the pits now also just like that...... it is already well known that Singaporeans are asset rich but cash poor...
... and with the so called CPF, people are stilll at odds when it comes to old age...
... nobody's buying into all these bull crapping surveys from whatever fancy named establishments... !
I wonder since local are paying so much for their HDB flat by paying thru their CPF how come the govt still want to implement annuity whereby can only get $600to $1100 a month. The govt also never said if for those who want to retire in other countries, do they need to give up their local citizenship to get their CPF?
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nb, puiz.
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Originally posted by will4:
I wonder since local are paying so much for their HDB flat by paying thru their CPF how come the govt still want to implement annuity whereby can only get $600to $1100 a month. The govt also never said if for those who want to retire in other countries, do they need to give up their local citizenship to get their CPF?
... you ask me? They should know better...... in my opinion, they never anticipated the aging population decades ago, and their CPF solution turned out inefficient... so now they want to add on to people's burden of growing old, by forcing them into an Annuity scam.. err. I mean scheme...
... all these while, their idea of helping the very people who were wooed into voting them, is to provide half buckets of water...
... they should step down as politicians/leaders of a country, and go run a real company/business... not a country... they totally lack any PEOPLE SKILLS!
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We need to increase minister salaries by another million or two.
Then they will work for Singaporeans.
Maybe.
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City of millionaires huh? cham, everything also will increase in price also huh.. Gal also will increase in price hehe