A new report by the Boston Consulting Group revealed that UAE’s financial wealth reached $600 billion in 2020, undeterred by the Covid-19 pandemic’s financial effects, growing at compound annual rate of 3 percent from 2015.

Investable wealth accounted for about 69 percent of it, the BCG report titled Global Wealth 2021: When Clients Take the Lead, unveiled.

Global financial wealth surged by more than 8.3 percent last year reaching of $250 trillion, compared with a decline of 8 percent after the 2008 financial crisis, the management consultancy said.

“Most market crises have an impact on financial wealth globally. However, the pandemic last year was atypical,” said Mustafa Bosca, managing director and partner at BCG.

“Equities and investment funds grew by 11.5 percent in 2020 due to strong capital market performance. There was a record growth of 10.6 percent in cash and deposits due to a spike in the savings rate.”

The boom in global financial wealth was attributed to a sharp increase in new savings and a strong stock market performance fueled by supportive central bank policies, the management consultancy said.

The Covid-19 pandemic pushed the global economy into its deepest recession since the 1930s, urging governments to inject $16 trillion in fiscal stimulus last year to bolster their economies as businesses closed and millions of people lost their jobs.

However, stimulus packages, backed by $9 trillion in monetary support from central banks, led to a resurgence in stock markets in the second half of 2020, propelling global equities to record highs.

The UAE, where 51 per cent of the country’s wealth is owned by people whose net worth is more than $5 million, represented 26 per cent of the GCC’s financial wealth in 2020.

Wealth in the Emirates is expected to grow by a compound annual rate of 4 per cent to $700bn by 2025, according to BCG estimates. Meanwhile, total net wealth in the GCC is projected to reach $6.3tn by 2025, from $5.2tn in 2020.