Number of millionaires may rise to 84,000 in India by 2017

As many as 84,000 Indians are expected to become millionaires by 2017, according to a global wealth report.

"India is likely to see a substantial jump of 53 per cent in the number of millionaires to 84,000 by 2017," Credit Suisse Research Institute's Global Wealth Report said.

It said the number of millionaires in emerging economies is expected to jump substantially in the next few years.

China could see its number double by 2017 to almost 2 million, it said.

On India, it said, "While wealth has been rising strongly, and the ranks of the middle class and wealthy have been swelling, not everyone has shared this growth and there is still a great deal of poverty".

This is reflected in the fact that almost everyone in India (95 per cent) has wealth below $10,000, while at the other end, a very small proportion of the population (just 0.3 per cent) has a net worth over $100,000.

According to Credit Suisse, India has 237,000 members of the top 1 per cent of global wealth holders. There are 1,500 UHNW individuals with wealth over $50 million and 700 with more than $100 million.

The report said that falling growth rate has seen India shedding $700 billion from its household wealth during mid-2011 to mid-2012 period, the steepest in Asia as this is 50 per cent of the total erosion that the continent has seen.