Mainland China

millionaires: While the US had 7 million millionaires last year, Japan - which took third place in the group ranking – logged 1 million people with at least a seven-figure net worth, according to Deutsche Welle. But the recent increase was sharpest in China where 1 million new millionaires were added throughout 2014 alone. The ranking placed China second in the world after the United States, which has led the table for years. Shrewd investment Researchers said the boost had been driven mainly by Chinese citizens' investments in local equities. In a study released in April, Forbes said that mainland China was estimated to have a record 400 billionaire families, thanks to a rally in stock prices. Their willingness to hope for a positive development of stocks paid off tremendously, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index finishing as the best performer in the whole of Asia in 2014 after soaring by more than 50 percent. 0:00:00 0:00:00Rich Chinese ski tourists "Strong market performance across the entire region - thanks to solid domestic demand - significantly increased the value of existing assets, compared with the increase stemming from newly created wealth," BCG report said. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.