Individual wealth of Indians to double in four years: Report

Some good news trickling in for Indians still unsure where the economy is headed. A new report says that the wealth of Indians is expected to double to Rs 1.79 lakh crore in the next four years.

"The wealth in the hands of Indian individuals continues to grow at a decent pace," Hrishikesh Parandekar, Chief Executive and Group Head (Wealth Management) of financial services company Karvy Wealth, which prepared the report, said.

The report says the individual wealth in the country grew to Rs 92,26,090 crore as on March 2012 from the
year-ago's Rs 86,49,764 crore. It will double to Rs 1,79,000 crore in the next four years and grow to Rs 2,14,000 crore the next year, the report said.

Direct equity will continue to be the largest asset class, while insurance and fixed deposits and bonds will be joint second, it said.

By FY'17-end, direct equity will form 28.7 per cent of total assets, up from 25.4 per cent in FY'12, which reflects the increase in confidence of investors, the report said.

In the year gone by, the proportion of debt as an asset class for investments grew sizeably due to the volatile equity markets, it said, adding that debt instruments constituted for 72.3 per cent of the investments from 67.9 per cent a year-ago.

This was primarily driven by reduction in equity from 31.8 per cent to 27.4 per cent, it said.

Within debt, bank fixed deposits constituted the highest component at 94.42 per cent or Rs 21,82,666 crore invested in FY'12, it said.

(With inputs from PTI)