MANILA, Philippines — British banking giant HSBC said the number of adults holding wealth of at least $250,000 would triple by 2030 amid the deepening pool of local savings providing a measure of resilience against external financial headwinds.
In a report titled “The Rise of Asian Wealth: Building Depth and Resilience,” HSBC chief Asia economist Frederic Neumann said economies that are growing more rapidly such as the Philippines tend to accumulate wealth faster.
“Economies that grow faster naturally accumulate wealth at a quicker pace,” Neumann said.
However, HSBC pointed out that faster growing economies often also tend to be poorer, thus starting off from a lower base.
It added that the Philippines, Vietnam, and India are expected to see more than double the number of adults holding wealth of at least $250,000.
“In these economies, in short, the middle class continues to expand rapidly. While this is often talked about in the context of growing consumer markets, where a rising share of household spending is deemed ‘discretionary’ (powering demand for things like cosmetics, cars, and computers), when it comes to wealth, this signifies growing demand for more sophisticated financial services, such as wealth and pension planning, and demand for insurance products,” the bank added.
The report showed that the number of adults with wealth of at least $250,000 would hit five million by 2030 and 8.1 million by 2035 from about 1.6 million last year.
The number is higher compared to Singapore’s 3.5 million but lower than Indonesia’s 16.8 million, Taiwan’s 11.4 million, Malaysia’s 9.9 million, Thailand’s 9.7 million, and Vietnam’s 6.4 million.
In terms of percentage share of population, HSBC said the number of adults in the Philippines with wealth of at least $250,000 would more than double to 6.2 percent by 2030 and 9.2 percent by 2035 from the current 2.4 percent.
On the other hand, the number of Filipino adults with wealth of at least $1 million is seen to quadruple to 400,000 by 2030 and 700,000 by 2035 from the current 100,000.
In terms of share of population, it is projected to increase to 0.6 percent by 2030 and 0.8 percent by 2035 from the current 0.2 percent.
HSBC said that the Philippines would book the sixth fastest projected growth in aggregated financial wealth between 2022 and 2030, after Vietnam India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and China.
The country is projected to grow its gross domestic product (GDP) by 6.5 to 7.5 percent this year after emerging from the pandemic-induced recession with a 5.7 percent expansion last year that reversed the 9.6 percent contraction in 2020.
GDP expanded by 7.8 percent in the first half of the year despite the disappointing 7.4 percent growth in the second quarter that was slower than the 8.2 percent recorded in the first quarter of the year.