The U.S. placed first in financial assets per capita, slightly beating out Switzerland in Allianz’s latest Global Wealth Report.
Allianz’s report, which examines the state of assets and debt among 60 countries including the U.S., China, New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand, found that global financial assets of private households remained strong in 2023 with a growth rate of 7.6%.
Growth remained resilient across Asia and North America, with both regions rising over 8%. The U.S. grew more than China, at 8.6% compared to 8.2%.
Specifically, the U.S. saw an increase in securities by 57% and insurance/pensions by 28%. Fresh savings fell by 10%, but U.S. savers withdrew an average of $686 billion from bank deposits and increased their purchase of securities by 7.9% to $1.7 billion, a new record as noted by Allianz. Growth in household liabilities fell to 2.9%, down from 5.8% in 2022, while the debt-to-GDP ratio fell to 75%.
As for the rest of the year, Allianz expects U.S. financial assets to increase by over 7% in 2024.
On a global scale, only two countries—New Zealand and Thailand—recorded dismal growth rates.
Even as global financial assets totaled $264 trillion in 2023, large gains in advanced economies like the U.S. and China have made it difficult for emerging economies to further their growth, Allianz explains in its report. Emerging economies have lost their growth lead in six of the last seven years.
“The comparatively weaker growth of poorer countries reflects the new reality of a fragmenting world,” said Ludovic Subran, chief economist of Allianz, in a statement. “Until 2017, the year in which the trade disputes between the USA and China broke out, poorer countries still had a growth advantage of 10 percentage points or more over richer countries. We will all pay a price for decoupling, but it is the emerging economies that will feel it most.”
Looking ahead, Allianz forecasts a 6.5% increase in global financial assets for 2024.
Additional insights on Allianz’s latest Global Wealth Report can be found here.