Turkey’s wealthy people to double by 2014

Some 20,000 people in Turkey will become "dollar millionaires" and the number of wealthy will rise by 500,000 by 2014, according to Cenk Tabakoğlu, deputy director general of ING Bank. The high-income group expected to grow higher than the country’s economy is threatening income distribution, Tabakoğlu said, speaking during a press conference Monday.

The high-income group in Turkey, including people who have $75,000 and more in liquid assets, is expected to exceed 1 million people in 2014, for the first time, he said. "Between 2010 and 2014, some 20,000 more people will become dollar millionaires. The total assets of wealthy people in Turkey will increase to $357 billion by the end of 2014," he said.

"We aim to take our share from this 1 million," he said. "We aim to boost our market share in personal banking with the impact of increasing the number of high-income groups in Turkey."

The number of rich people in Turkey and BRIC countries, including Brazil, Russia, India and China, will double by 2014, Tabakoğlu said, adding that 500,000 new people will in Turkey become rich. "In the upcoming period, the assets of the high-income group in Turkey are expected to grow faster than the economy."

According to data from Datamonitor, leading global market research company, the number of people who have liquid assets worth 100,000 Turkish Liras and more, is 6,525. "The total liquid assets of this group reach $193.4 billion. This figure is expected to increase to 7,392 people and $220.1 billion assets," Tabakoğlu said. "But, of course, this income is not distributed to every part of society equally. This is a general problem across the world."


/Hurriyet Daily News/