Mr. Ludovic Serbran, Chief Economist of Allianz Group, revealed that the growth of financial assets in the United States is remarkable. “In 2024 alone, half of the global financial asset growth came from the United States. Over the past decade, this proportion was 47%, while China accounted for 20% and Western Europe 12%. Therefore, at least in terms of financial assets, the belief that other countries benefit from the United States to the disadvantage of the United States is unlikely to be true. Smart saving means holding securities. Holding securities, especially stocks, has been a key factor in asset growth over the past two years. Savers saw significant gains. In 2023 and 2024, securities values ??grew by 11.5% and 12.0%, respectively, nearly double the rate of the other two asset classes: insurance/pensions grew by 6.7% and 6.9%, while bank deposits grew by 4.7% and 5.7%. However, the benefits from rising securities prices varied by country. North American investors held 59% of their portfolios in securities, compared to Western Europeans at around 35% and Indians at just 13%. This resulted in less impact on overall asset growth, requiring more reliance on savings. "You have to work to earn money, but it's smarter to let your money work for you, like Americans do, because rising stock prices are the primary driver of asset growth in the United States," said report co-author Kathryn Stoffel.

Inequality remains constant. When looking at the overall distribution of wealth within countries, the top 10% of the wealthiest investors in the countries studied were: The top 10% of the wealth share is 60.4%, with the "average" wealth value being approximately 3.08 times higher than the median. Meanwhile, while a "gradient" between low- and high-income countries has been observed for some time on the international stage, domestically, there has been no progress toward greater equality over the past several years, despite the long-standing political debate about inequality. In 2004, the top 10% of the countries studied had a 59.9% share, with an average-to-median ratio of 3.05. These figures are virtually unchanged from the most recent year. Thailand is showing a similar trend, with the top 10%'s share decreasing slightly from 66.5% to 65.3%.

Thailand's total assets have recovered slightly. Thai household gross financial assets at the end of 2024 increased by 2.5% to €787.7 billion, reflecting a slight recovery after a -4.1% contraction the previous year. This represents growth in real terms of 2.1%, primarily driven by deposits and insurance and pension assets. Deposits, which remain the primary asset in Thai household portfolios, account for 57% of the total, increased by 2.7%. Insurance and pensions, although the smallest category, saw the highest growth at 6.5%. Securities, meanwhile, remained stable, falling by -1.0% (after -17.4% the previous year), but remain the second-largest asset class, accounting for 23% of total assets.

Total liabilities continued to slow down, reaching just 0.2%. However, the debt-to-GDP ratio of 88.4% remains concerning, not only because it is higher than the regional average of 59.6%, but also because it is more than the regional average of 59.6%. The total assets to GDP ratio was only 149.7%. In summary, Thai households' net financial assets increased by 6.1% to 322.5 billion euros, ranking 45th among all countries surveyed when considering net assets per capita.

Go To Lead