Mar. 9 – Merrill Lynch’s recent Cap Gemini report has looked at metrics for 2007, the latest data available, and measured the global growth in High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI).

“India led the world in HNWI population growth at 22.7 percent, driven by market capitalization growth of 118 percent and real GDP growth of 7.9 percent. Although India’s real GDP growth decelerated from 9.4 percent in 2006, current levels are considered more stable and sustainable,” the report observed.

The report, in looking back to 2007, does not deal with any of the effects of the Global Financial Crisis that wiped out nearly a third of the market value in 2008.

The report also listed the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange as the world’s top 12 exchanges at the end of 2007, “with growth rates of 122 percent and 115 percent respectively….that were boosted by initial public offering markets and heightened international interest.”

The report also speculated why India exceeded China in their growth rate of new millionaires, suggesting that as market capitalization and real GDP in China were spread over a larger population, there were smaller per capita gains in China. In 2006, India had a larger market capitalization growth than gross national income, significantly impacting HNWI population growth. In addition, it said, China is currently experiencing explosive growth in its “mass affluent” population, which has yet to break the HNWI threshold of US$1million.

Growing millionaires at a pace of 22.7 percent, India added 23,000 millionaires in 2007 to its 2006 tally of 100,000 millionaires measured in US dollars. While India’s HNWI population growth of 22.7 percent in 2007 exceeded China’s 20.3 percent and its own 2006 gains of 20.5 in 2006, it was still way below its neighbor in absolute number of millionaires. China counted nearly 500,000 HNWIs.