Millions of people become millionaires during the pandemic

More than 1 percent of adults worldwide became millionaires for the first time last year

Whilst the pandemic has undoubtedly been a dreadful time for the vast majority of people, there are always winners and losers from these periods. And that has been the case for more than five million people across the world who have become millionaires for the first time despite Covid-19.

Research from Credit Suisse has found that the number of millionaires increased by 5.2 million to 56.1 million globally last year. This is the equivalent of more than 1 percent of adults across the world.

This is reportedly down to recovering stock markets and soaring house prices, which helped boost their wealth.

The research said that wealth creation appeared to be “completely detached” from the economic woes of the pandemic.

Anthony Shorrocks, who is an economist and author of the research said that the pandemic had an “acute short term impact on global markets,” but that this trend had been “largely reversed by the end of June 2020.”

He said: “Global wealth not only held steady in the face of such turmoil but in fact rapidly increased in the second half of the year.”

The report also said that total global wealth grew by 7.4% in 2020.

Since the start of the century, the number of people with wealth between $10,000 and $100,000 has more than tripled in size, rising from 507 million people in 2000 to 1.7 billion in mid-2020.

The research said that this increase was down to the “growing prosperity of emerging economies, especially China, and the expansion of the middle class in the developing world.”

Nannette Hechler-Fayd’herbe, chief investment officer at Credit Suisse, said: “There is no denying actions taken by governments and central banks to organise massive income transfer programmes to support the individuals and businesses most adversely affected by the pandemic, and by lowering interest rates, have successfully averted a full scale global crisis.