The Chinese mainland saw 70 percent of its affluent people reporting a rise in their wealth over the past six months, topping the level of all other Asian countries, accoding to a survey by HSBC and the marketing research company Nielsen.
Among respondents on the Chinese mainland, over a third said their net worth grew by up to 10 percent, 18 percent said wealth grew between 11-24 percent, 12 percent between 25-50 percent and 3 percent by over 50 percent.
In spite of the rapid rise in wealth, the survey found that affluent mainlanders were among the biggest savers in Asia. They allocate 28 percent of their monthly incomes to savings, insurance or investments, after Singapore (33%) and Taiwan (32%).
Forty percent of income was for daily and recurrent expenses and 32 percent for dining, entertainment, clothing, travel and electronics.
When asked about changes they expect to make to their investments in the next six months, half of the mainland respondents plan to increase investments while 10 percent said they would reduce investments. Over 71 percent said they plan to invest in stocks over the next half a year.
"The affluent are fast becoming savvy about protecting, growing, and managing their newly created wealth, providing momentum towards a more robust and holistic financial planning approach in China," said Bonnie Qiu, head of personal financial services at HSBC Bank (China) Co Ltd.
The survey was conducted between September and October 2009 in the eight Asian-Pacific markets of Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Chinese mainland, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. On the Chinese mainland, the survey targeted rich individuals between 30 and 55 years old with monthly personal incomes of more than 12,000 yuan or total liquid assets of 500,000 yuan.
