China has over 1 mn multi-millionaires

Beijing, July 31 (IANS) In a first, the number of multi-millionaires in China has surpassed the one million mark, according to the latest edition of a Chinese magazine known for reporting about the country's wealthiest individuals.

According to the Hurun Report, a magazine best known for its China Rich List, a ranking of China's wealthiest individuals, the number of multi-millionaires in China reached 1.02 million by 2011 end, Xinhua reported Tuesday.

Chinese individuals with over 10 million yuan (about $1.6 million) broke through the one million mark for the first time. There are 63,500 billionaires among these individuals, it said.

According to the report, 84 percent of the wealthy individuals are concentrated in the eastern, northern and southern regions of China with the capital city of Beijing being home to the greatest number of wealthy people, with 179,000 multi-millionaires.

It says that rising property prices and a fast-growing GDP were a key driver for growth in the number of Chinese multi-millionaires in 2011.

The report did not include Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau for its statistics.