Global Wealth Report: Austrian Financial Wealth Increased
A new analysis of global wealth shows that private financial assets have increased internationally, but also in Austria. In this article you can find out how strongly Austria's economy has developed in recent years and how much the average Austrian has in his or her bank account.
Private wealth has risen sharply in recent years. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Usien [Public Domain]
The Austrian economy, which was hit hard by Covid-19, is expected to return to the same level this year as in the pre-crisis year 2019. The prerequisite for this is that the current GDP growth rates hold.
This is the encouraging result of the Global Wealth Report for 2022, which is published annually by the major Swiss bank Credit Suisse. But it is not only in Austria that strong growth rates are being recorded - worldwide, assets rose sharply last year.
Credit Suisse estimates that global assets will have increased to USD 463.6 trillion by the end of 2021, which means an increase of almost 10% compared to the previous year 2020.
This means a median value of USD 87.489 per adult, an increase of 8.4%.
Nevertheless, it cannot be assumed that this rapid upswing can be maintained for a longer period of time. Taking inflation into account will probably lower the calculated growth rates for 2022.
On a country basis, households in the United States achieved the highest growth in wealth in 2021, followed by China, Canada, India and Australia.
Wealth losses were less common and were almost always associated with currency depreciation against the US dollar, affecting Japan, Italy and Turkey, for example.
One forecast predicts that by 2024 global wealth per adult will exceed the USD 100,000 threshold and that the number of millionaires will exceed 87 million people in the next five years.
Wealth is also growing in Austria
Wealth per adult at the end of 2021 was USD 250,125 in Austria, USD 256,985 in Germany and USD 696,604 in Switzerland. From 2000 to 2021, it grew at an average annual rate of 3.8% in Austria, 4.8% in Germany and 5.4% in Switzerland when measured in current US dollars.
Austrians not only have the lowest average wealth in the German-speaking world. Wealth accumulation was also less rapid in Austria. Measured at the current dollar exchange rate, the assets of Austrians grew by 3.8 percent from 2000 to 2021, but those of Germans by 4.8 percent and those of the Swiss by 5.4 percent.