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(SINGAPORE) Although the number of rich individuals here hit 55,000 last year, Singapore ranked only eighth in terms of the growth of this well-heeled group.

It saw a 13.4 per cent rise in the number of wealthy people last year, against a growth of 22.4 per cent in 2004 when Singapore took top spot.

The findings came from a survey of rich people in 69 markets by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini for their World Wealth Report 2006.

Singapore ranked behind countries such as South Korea with a 21.3 per cent rise and India at 19.3 per cent.

This was followed by Russia (17.4 per cent), South Africa (15.9 per cent), Indonesia (14.7 per cent), Hong Kong (14.4 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (13.5 per cent).

United Arab Emirates (11.8 per cent) and Brazil (11.3 per cent) took the ninth and 10th placing.

The report defined the rich as high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) with net financial assets of over US$1 million, excluding their primary residential property. Counted in greenback, some 1.3 per cent of the population here are now millionaires.

'Economic growth and stockmarket performance were the two main drivers of wealth creation, making 2005 a year of robust growth for the Asia Pacific region,' said Kong Eng Huat, Merrill Lynch Global Private Client Group's managing director for South Asia.

As such, South Korea had a clear lead since its stockmarket capitalisation jumped by some 80 per cent in 2005. At end-January 2006, the Straits Times Index rose by about 16 per cent from the year-ago period. However, he sees better times ahead for the property market and expects wealth creation and the growth of the number of HNWIs here to be sustained.

Singapore's development as a wealth management hub also means that a greater inflow of funds from China, India and the Middle East can be expected.

Across the region, the HNWI population swelled to 2.4 million in 2005, a 7.3 per cent increase from the year before. Their combined wealth increased 8 per cent to US$7.6 trillion.

Asian HNWIs had lower allocations in equities and fixed-income securities, at 24 per cent and 17 per cent respectively, compared with the global average of 30 per cent and 21 per cent.

However, wealthy Asians increased their allocation to equities by two percentage points from 2004 thanks to strong regional stockmarket performances last year.

Noting that some 23 per cent of those individuals' wealth last year was in alternative investments - higher than the global average of 20 per cent - Merrill also expects the regional HNWIs' interest in such assets to continue.

While some 56 per cent of regional HNWIs' assets were located in Asia Pacific, Merrill expects that to drop to 52 per cent in 2007, as HNWIs become increasingly aware of global investment opportunities.

Still, the Asia Pacific region remains an investment hotspot.

Last year, it surpassed Europe as the second most popular destination for HNWI investments, accounting for 23 per cent of their total assets.

Merrill expects an increased inflow of HNWIs' funds to this region, with an asset allocation of some 24 per cent in Asia Pacific by next year.

Globally, based on a 6 per cent annual growth, the total wealth of high-net-worth individuals is projected to increase from US$33.3 trillion in 2005 to US$44.6 trillion by 2010.

Produced annually, the World Wealth Report covers 69 countries, which account for over 98 per cent of global gross national income and 99 per cent of the world's stockmarket capitalisation.