Chinese Billionaires Made an Absolute Killing in 2017
By Carl Samson
December 28, 2017
Chinese billionaires added more to their wealth than the rest of the world in 2017, according to a new report.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index — a daily ranking of the world’s 500 richest — reported that all 38 Chinese billionaires added $177 billion to their fortune, the largest gain among 49 countries listed.
The amount represents a 65.5% gain, followed by India (43.3%), Europe (20.9%) and the United States (17.9%).
Notable Chinese gainers include Hui Ka Yan, founder of property developer China Evergrande Group, who added $25.9 billion — a skyrocketing 350% increase from 2016.
Tencent’s Pony Ma, named the most generous Chinese philanthropist in 2016, also became Asia’s second-richest person after seeing his wealth hit $41 billion.
Meanwhile, the number of Asian billionaires also surpassed the U.S. for the first time, Bloomberg noted, citing a report from UBS Group AG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
At 159, the U.S. currently has the biggest number of billionaires on the index, addeding $315 billion to hit a total net worth of $2 trillion.
Overall, the index saw the wealth of billionaires increase by $1 trillion. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($100 billion) unseated Microsoft’s Bill Gates ($91.6 billion) as the richest person on Earth.
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