Singapore: Singapore will outpace Hong Kong in growth in the ranks of millionaires over the next five years, with about one in 30 people qualifying as high net worth by 2020, swelled by Indians and Chinese keen to avoid social unrest, according to WealthInsight.

Millionaires, or high net worth individuals, will increase 18.3 per cent in Singapore over the period compared to 15.6 per cent in Hong Kong, a WealthInsight report showed.

“Though Hong Kong has a much higher millionaire population than Singapore, 193,000 against 154,000, recent events such as the umbrella revolution may have turned migratory HNWIs away from the city,” said Oliver Williams, head of WealthInsight. He was referring to events a year ago when students and riot police clashed for control of Hong Kong’s streets in a challenge to Chinese rule.

Singapore’s relative stability is underscored by its high net worth individuals having the lowest average wealth in Asia, at $5.2 million, reflecting lower inequality. Indonesia has the highest average wealth, at $6.5 million. Germany’s wealthy, for example, have an average wealth of $3.2 million, according to WealthInsight.

Singapore and Hong Kong are vying to become the pre-eminent financial hub in the Asia-Pacific. In Hong Kong, Chinese officials have called for voting out pro-democracy lawmakers and reaffirmed the Communist Party’s authority over the city in a deepening political rift, even as economic ties with the mainland grow stronger, from cross-border stock links to yuan- denominated bond sales to the millions of tourists who crowd local shops and hotels.

“Singapore’s burgeoning financial markets, renowned private banking and superior quality of life are continuing to attract HNWIs from neighbouring countries,” Williams said. “We’re currently seeing a large influx of Indian and Chinese millionaires into the country.”

[BOX] Singapore’s Economy Expands More Than Estimated on Services

Singapore

Singapore’s economy grew more than initially estimated in the third quarter as services helped offset a decline in manufacturing amid slowing growth in China. The local currency rose. Gross domestic product rose an annualised 1.9 per cent in the three months through September from the previous quarter, when it fell a revised 2.6 per cent, the trade ministry said in a statement Wednesday. That compares with an initial government estimate of a 0.1 per cent expansion and a median forecast for no growth in a Bloomberg News survey of 15 economists.

The city-state is expecting economic growth to be “close to” 2 per cent in 2015, the lower end of its earlier forecast for an expansion of 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent. GDP is expected to increase 1 per cent to 3 per cent in 2016, the trade ministry said.

-Bloomberg