One out of every million Vietnamese nationals is classified as ‘super-rich,’ and the number of such affluent people in the Southeast Asian country has increased almost fourfold in the last ten years, a World Bank report released Tuesday reveals.
The ‘super-rich’ are individuals defined as having “assets of US$30 million or more excluding a principal residence,” and Vietnam was “estimated to have 110 super-rich” in 2013, the World Bank said in its Taking Stock report.
The number is seen as a substantial increase from 34 ‘super-rich’ in 2003.
The Taking Stock report, intended to provide an update on Vietnam’s recent economic development, noted that neither the number of ‘super-rich’ nor the growth rate is “extraordinary for Vietnam at its income level.”
“Around the world, the number of ‘super-rich’ has grown rapidly over the last decade, fueling concerns about rising inequality in Vietnam and at the global level,” the document reads.
Taking Stock has a special focus on inequality in Vietnam, as the issue has been a topic of public concern in the country and around the world.
“Concerns over inequality have arisen despite Vietnam’s rapid long-term growth with only modest increases in income inequality,” the report remarks.
“Popular concern about inequality and demand for policy responses is likely to grow over time as more Vietnamese move to cities and are exposed to visible differences in welfare,” Gabriel Demombynes, one of the report’s authors, commented.
“There is already substantial demand for redistributive social policy to narrow inequalities in Vietnam. This demand is likely to persist and to rise as Vietnam continues to urbanize.”
World famous business magazine Forbes reported in March that Pham Nhat Vuong, CEO of Vingroup JSC, Vietnam’s largest property developer and mall operator, remained on a list of the world’s billionaires compiled by the magazine.
According to Forbes, Vuong, 45, is the only Vietnamese on the magazine’s list and now owns around US$1.6 billion in his total assets.
Source: Tuoitre News; Thanh Nien News.
Comments:
According to the World Bank report, in Southeast Asia the number of ‘super-rich’ people (more than $30 million wealth) has increased almost fourfold in the last ten years. But, did the middle-class income rise four times for the last ten years? Obviously, it did not.
Over the past ten years almost in all countries of the world, incomes of the upper class have been growing faster than the incomes of the other sectors of society. It is due to the fact that the source of income of the “super rich” people – are financial assets (primarily shares). The value of shares in emerging markets have grown manyfold within the last 10 years. While the source of income of the lower and middle classes is not rent money from equity, but the monthly salary. However, the salaries cannot grow as fast as the stock bubble is blowing up.