Switzerland was the richest in the world

8 years ago - Published in Finance, Fundamental Analysis

The US has overtaken Switzerland as the world’s richest country in terms of wealth per household. On September 27, Allianz unveiled the eighth edition of its "Global Wealth Report", which puts the asset and debt situation of households in more than 50 countries under the microscope.

At the top of the list of the 20 richest countries (net financial assets per capita, see table), a changing of the guard occurred in 2016, with the United States capturing the top spot from Switzerland.However, its lead is razor-thin and some of the credit goes to a stronger dollar.

Switzerland’s net per capita financial assets rose by 2.7 percent in 2016 to €175,720, while the US saw growth of 5.8 percent to take it to €177,210.

Japan managed to retain the third position – thanks to a statistical revision which reduced household debt by almost a fifth.Otherwise, the list gives the now usual picture, with Scandinavian and Asian countries dominating. There is in fact only one country from the eurozone still included in the Top 10 in both lists (net and gross): the Netherlands.

Development of global wealth distribution since the turn of the millennium has been defined by one phenomenon in particular: rampant growth in the global wealth middle class. The number of people belonging to this category has more than doubled during this period, from around 450 million in 2000 to over 1 billion today. The vast majority of those joining the middle class have come from the wealth lower class, with almost 600 million people making the leap since 2000.

Debt levels show significant differences between individual countries, the authors said. Per capita debt, for example, ranges from an average of €10,220 in Greece to €93,120 in Switzerland.
“The gap between these two countries has widened from around €65,000 to almost €83,000 since the outbreak of the [global financial] crisis,” they wrote.

“While Greek households have corrected their ‘excessive debts’ from the years prior to the crisis and reduced their liabilities by an average of 0.8% per year, the outstanding debt volume of Swiss households has continued to grow by an average of 3.4% per year.

Total financial assets were calculated based on information from household surveys, bank statistics, statistics on assets held in equities and bonds, and technical reserves.