KUALA LUMPUR: The number of ultra-wealthy Malaysians rose 11% to 310 last year, up from 280 in 2016, among the country’s population of 31.19 million, according to Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report 2018.

Ultra-wealthy individuals are those with US$50 million (RM193.35 million) or more in net assets.

The 12th edition of report, released by the independent global property consultancy yesterday, also predicted the super-rich population in Malaysia would jump 65% to 510 people from 2017 to 2022.

Knight Frank Asia Pacific head of research Nicholas Holt said the strengthening of the ringgit versus the US dollar by 15% last year was the main contributor to the rise of the super-rich population in the country.

“Besides, e-commerce and manufacturing sectors, which continued to perform well last year, along with the new sectors like financial technology that had created new wealth in the country, also contributed to the 11% growth,” he said.

Holt said this at a media briefing yesterday in conjunction with the launch of The Wealth Report 2018.

The annual publication tracks the growing super-rich population globally along with a deeper analyses of 52 countries.

It said the world’s ultra-wealthy population increased 10% (11,630 individuals) to 129,730 people last year, with Asia surpassing Europe as the key hub for the super-rich.

Back home, the report said these rich Malaysians preferred less risky assets, with 44% of them allocating their investments into the property sector last year, above the global average of 39% in 2017.

It said 33% of wealthy Malaysians invested in gold against the global average of 25%.

However, 21% of Malaysian respondents said they planned to increase the weight in their cryptocurrencies investment portfolio, matching the global average of 21%. – Bernama