SINGAPORE: Singapore’s count of millionaires could increase by more than 60% over the five years from 2020 to 2025, according to Credit Suisse Group AG, part of a surge in millionaires expected in Asia as financial capitals emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.

       The city-state may have 437, 000 millionaires by 2025 compared with 270, 000 in 2020, according to the bank’s 2021 Global Wealth Report. That 62% pace would be faster than Hong Kong’s estimated 60% for the same period, but slower than the growth forecast in mainland China, India, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan.

       Singapore’s percentage of millionaires in the total population – was 5.5% in 2020, the second-highest in Asia after Hong Kong’s 8.3%, the report said. The island nation’s Gini coefficient – a more broad-based measure of wealth inequality – was at 78.3 in 2020, much higher than Japan’s 64.4, South Korea’s 67.6 and Taiwan’s 70.8. — Bloomberg