THE RECENT EMERGENCE of a Mexican, Carlos Slim, as the world’s richest man is an indication of the growing wealth of Latin America.
According to the latest Merrill Lynch/Capgemini Annual world wealth report, there were 371,000 high-net-worth individuals (those with more than $1 million in investable assets as well as their principal home) on the continent at the end of 2006, up 10.2% on 2005. Total investable assets held by HNWIs in the region jumped by 23% last year to $5.1 trillion. Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, has 120,000 HNWIs, up 10% on 2005.
Although there are many more HNWIs in Asia (some 2.6 million), they have a total investable asset base of just $8.4 trillion, indicating that the concentration of wealth in Latin America is much higher than in Asia.
Many of them, such as Slim (whose personal...
