The personal wealth of the Chinese mass affluent that is available for investment surged 13.7 percent in 2012 from the previous year, driven by growth of personal savings and gains from property investment, a report released Thursday showed.
The personal wealth of the Chinese mass affluent that can be used for investment reached 83.1 trillion yuan ($13.4 trillion) in 2012, up 13.7 percent from a year earlier, according to a report released jointly by Forbes China and Beijing-based wealth management consulting firm CreditEase.
The term "mass affluent" refers to middle-class people whose investable personal assets are between $100,000 (630,000 yuan) and $1 million (6.3 million yuan). The majority were born between the 1960s and 1970s.
The mass affluent in China grew to 10.26 million people in 2012 from 7.94 million in 2010 and is expected to exceed 12 million this year, the report said.
"The expanding number of mass-affluent people in China indicates that the country's urbanization drive has created a middle class. They are China's taxpaying pillar," said Zhou Jiangong, editor-in-chief of Forbes China.
"The growth of the mass affluent in China has obviously boosted the country's domestic consumption given their huge consumption capacity and large number," Lü Qi, chief wealth management expert at CreditEase, told the Global Times.
"As their ability to manage their wealth continues to mature, they will release their potential for consumption," Lü said.
The report also showed that the Chinese mass affluent has an average of 1.33 million yuan per capita available for investment.
The wealth of 57.1 percent of the Chinese mass affluent comes from salaries or corporate dividends, followed by gains from corporate, property and stock investments, the report showed.
The mass affluent shows a strong desire for investment, with 88 percent making investments with their personal wealth, the report said.
Around 62.5 percent of the mass affluent invested in bank wealth management products and 53.9 percent invested in property. The third choice was investment in stock markets.
"Compared with the upper middle class, the mass affluent will not seek high-risk investments," Yang Weixiao, an analyst with Lianxun Securities, told the Global Times.
"As the stock market in China is currently performing poorly, the mass affluent will likely stick to property investment despite the property control policy because investment in property promises stable returns," Yang said.
"The mass affluent will become the second growth point for the wealth management sector, following high-net-worth individuals," Lü said.
The report was based on the findings of respected international and domestic researchers, top research institutes and a survey of 1,196 respondents across the country.