ECONOMICS REPORT - World Wealth Report

ECONOMICS REPORT - World Wealth Report
By Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Friday, June 25, 2004

This is Bob Doughty¹ with the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Two-thousand-three was a good year for wealthy people around the world.

Merrill Lynch and Capgemini have released their yearly World Wealth Report. Merrill Lynch is an American financial services company. Capgemini is a French company that gives business advice.

Seven-point-seven million people worldwide had one million dollars or more in wealth at the end of last year. The report says the number grew by seven and a half percent from two-thousand two. That year there were not many new millionaires.

But last year the investments of the wealthy did well. Their wealth increased by almost eight percent. China, India, Spain and the United States were high performers in the creation of wealth.

Wealthy people around the world bought more stock last year. The report shows that their stock holdings as a share of their wealth increased from twenty percent to thirty-five percent.

Last year, an economist² at the Federal Reserve Board compared stock ownership rates among Americans. That report said the wealthiest one percent owned more than half of all stock held by individuals or families as of two-thousand-one. The percentage was even higher for government-secured investments in bonds. The top one percent owned sixty-four percent of the bonds.

Stocks and bonds are called liquid assets, just like money in the bank. Houses are less easy to sell. So the World Wealth Report does not include the value of a personal home in its measure of wealth.

Last year, the number of millionaires increased at the highest rates in Africa, North America and the Asia-Pacific areas. The United States had the largest increase in numbers of any country.

But Europe with its larger population continued to have the most millionaires, followed by North America. Both areas have over two million millionaires.

The study says most very wealthy people are at or near retirement³ age. Seventy percent are over fifty-five years old.

All together, high-worth individuals had twenty-nine-million-million dollars in wealth last year. The World Wealth Report says that is expected to reach forty-million-million dollars by two-thousand-eight.

And, the richest of the rich are doing the best of all. The report says a very small but fast growing group of seventy thousand people are worth more than thirty million dollars.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。