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Asif Iqbal
Doha
Qatar tops the list of countries with the highest average wealth per adult in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), according to the latest global wealth report released by Credit Suisse Research Institute.
The average wealth per adult (WPA) in Qatar in mid-2016 was $161,700. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), with an average WPA of $151,100, came second, the report said.
Over the past 12 months, global wealth rose by $3.5 trillion to $256 trillion, an increase of 1.4 percent. It, however, noted that wealth creation has merely kept pace with population growth."As a result, in 2016, wealth per adult remained unchanged for the first time since 2008, at approximately $52,800," the report said.
The report placed Kuwait in the third position in MENA region, with an average WPA of $119,000. In Bahrain, the average WPA dropped by 1.1 percent to $50,600. In Saudi Arabia, the average WPA was $40,600. The average WPA in Oman was $52,664; in Lebanon it was $30,730; in Jordan $15,702, in Iraq $12,663, in Iran $3,955 and in Egypt $ 6,300.
As regards the total wealth of countries in the region, the report placed Saudi Arabia in the pole position with $725 billion.
UAE recorded $597 billion while Kuwait and Qatar have $288 billion and $210 billion respectively. Oman has wealth of $105 billion while Bahrain has $31 billion ” the lowest in GCC, the report said.
The total wealth in the MENA region grew by 162 percent since 2000, well above the global average of 119 percent. In the next five years, household net wealth in the MENA region is expected to increase by 53 percent or nearly 9 percent annually.
Globally, the report placed Switzerland in the leading position in several tables.
"Since the turn of the century, Switzerland has led international tables in terms of average wealth. Furthermore, every year since 2012, wealth per adult has exceeded $500,000 dollars, a threshold not achieved by any other country," the report said, adding that from 2001 onward, it has also ranked top amoung countries with median wealth. In 2016, Switzerland's total household wealth was $3.5 trillion, or 1.4 percent of global assets, while it was home to only 0.1 percent of the world's adults, the report said.
