Swiss bank forecasts Kazakhstan will be among global leaders in terms of wealth growth

By 2028, Kazakhstan will have 60,800 millionaires / Collage by Kursiv.media, photo editor: Aruzhan Makhsotova

According to the Global Wealth Report 2024 by Swiss bank UBS, the number of USD millionaires in Kazakhstan is expected to grow by 37% within four years from 44,300 in 2023 to 60,800 in 2028.

Once this happens, Kazakhstan will be among three leaders in terms of wealth growth out of 56 countries reviewed by experts for the survey. Taiwan is expected to be ranked first, as the number of rich people will rise here by 47%, reaching 1.1 million. The second place is going to be occupied by Turkey, where 87,000 millionaires are expected to live in the country by 2028 (+43%).

Despite being among the leaders in terms of wealth growth, Kazakhstan is currently holding one of the latest positions in the global rating of millionaires after Hungary and Qatar, where 28,200 and 29,900 millionaires will emerge by 2028.

The U.S., China and Japan are expected to have the largest number of millionaires by 2028: 25.4 million (+16%), 6.5 million (+8%) and 3.6 million (28%), respectively.

On the other hand, the Netherlands (-4% to 1.17 million) and the U.K. (-17% to 2.54 million) will show negative performances in the rating. The number of millionaires in Greece won’t change by 2028 (0%, 80,200 people).

Wealth growth in Kazakhstan was 20% on average over the period from 2000 to 2010, slowing down to 9% in the next decade, following the global trend. By this term, Kazakhstan was second after Qatar in 2000-2010 and is the leader now.

Kazakhstan is also ranked among leaders in average growth of wealth per adult after Turkey where this rate grew by 1,708% in local currency from 2008 to 2023. Kazakhstan and Russia (third in the rating) have shown wealth growth of 1,431% and 608%, respectively.

However, the experts also pointed out that over the period from 2022 to 2023, Kazakhstan showed one of the worst results in average wealth growth per adult (17%), falling behind only Cyprus (30%) and Mexico (20%). In Europe, the biggest blow in the average wealth per adult rate was reported in Switzerland (-6%) and Italy (-4%).

Turkey, once again, became the leader in terms of average growth in wealth per adult (+157%) from 2022 to 2023, far ahead of many other countries. Qatar and Russia hold the nearest positions with a rate of 20%, followed by South Africa (slightly above 16%) and Israel (14%). In the U.S., average wealth per adult grew by 2.5%, which is about one-third of the rate increase in mainland China and comparable with Norway.