India, Chi face exodus of millioires'

Washington, July 28: India and Chi are facing an exodus of their wealthiest citizens with tens of thousands of “high-net-worth individuals” (HNWIs) having left to seek greener pastures, according to a new report. As many as 61,000 Indian millioires left the country and settled overseas in the last 14 years, second only to Chi which saw an exodus of 91,000, according to a report by consultancies New World Wealth and LIO Global.

France, Italy, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa and Egypt round out the top eight, according to the study cited by Time magazine. The study, released this month, looked at immigration data from 2000 and 2014 indicating applications for a second citizenship or change of domicile (permanent residence).

Britain — its capital city London, in particular — appears to be the most popular destition for the world’s rich to settle down in, followed by the US, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong.

The report said Indians tend to move to countries like Australia and the United Arab Emirates, while Singapore and Hong Kong are popular destitions for Chi’s wealthy. Despite the large-scale departure of millioires, India still has the tenth largest number of millioires at 226 800, while Chi stands fifth with 608,500. The US tops the list with 4,105,000 millioires.

Those who leave generally cite reasons like “turmoil in home country, security concerns and optimizing education of children,” the report said.

Highlights:

Britain was the top beneficiary of HNWIs from abroad. Most of these HNWIs came from Europe, Russia, Chi and India. Inflows into the US predomintly came from Chi. Notable numbers also came from Britain, India and Russia.

Singapore in second place benefited from a strong migration of HNWIs from Chi, India and Indonesia.

Australia was boosted by strong inflows from the Asia Pacific region (India, Chi, Indonesia), as well as Britain and South Africa.

The UAE (mainly Dubai) saw strong inflows from North Africa, India and Middle Eastern countries.

Indian HNWIs tended to move to the UAE, Britain, the US and Australia. (IANS)