Asia to Add 1.66 Mln Millionaires by 2015 - Report

HONG KONG, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Asia will add 1.66 million dollar-millionaires by 2015, taking the total number of wealthy to 2.82 million as the world's fastest-growing major economies of China and India continue to mint millionaires, a report from Julius Baer said on Wednesday.

The Swiss wealth manager forecast that the wealth of high networth individuals (HNIs), those with $1 million or more in investable assets, would nearly triple to $15.8 trillion in the five years to 2015.

China alone would be home to nearly half of the millionaires in Asia with combined wealth of $8.8 trillion. The world's most populous nation had 502,000 million HNIs with investable assets totaling $2.6 trillion, the report said.

India would more than double the number of HNIs to 403,000 by 2015, while Indonesia would see the highest growth rate in the number of wealthy, up by a quarter to 99,000, the first such report from Julius Baer said.

The wealth manager forecast that China and India would collectively contribute 40 percent to global growth for 2011 and 2012.

RANKS OF THE RICH BY 2015 Country No of HNIs (1,000) Wealth of HNIs ($bln) China 1378 8764 India 403 2465 Indonesia 99 487 Philippines 38 164 Thailand 128 609 South Korea 310 1074 Malaysia 68 329 Taiwan 136 593 Hong Kong 131 711 Singapore 129 616 Total 2820 15812 (Reporting by Nishant Kumar; Editing by Chris Lewis)