China's middle class overtakes the US, says Credit Suisse

According to Credit Suisse’s latest Global Wealth Report, just 0.7% of the world’s adult population owns almost half of the world’s wealth, while 71%, or 3.4m adults, have under $10,000, accounting for only 3% of global wealth.

The report also showed that there are more poor people in the US than in China, as the latter’s middle class has overtaken the US to become the largest in the world.

“China now has the largest number of middle class adults by a wide margin – 109m compared to 92m in the United States,” the bank said.

Credit Suisse said the middle classes grew at a slower pace in 2015 than top-end wealth. Still, the bank said the middle class will continue to expand in emerging economies overall, with a lion's share of that growth to occur in Asia.

“As a result, we will see changing consumption patterns as well as societal changes as, historically, the middle class has acted as an agent of stability and prosperity."

According to the report, global wealth dropped nearly 5% in the year to mid-2015 to $250 trillion on the back of a stronger dollar. Total wealth in Europe was hit the hardest, falling $10.7 trillion.

Stripping out currency effects, however, wealth continued to expand at the trend rate since the beginning of the century.