Brazil drags growth upwards. - The crisis led to an 11.7% slump in global wealth in 2008, with Latin America the only part of the world bucking the trend, experiencing growth of 3%. Brazil is doing particularly well, explains an annual report, Delivering on the Client Promise: Global Wealth 2009, published by Boston Consulting Group. The research measured the assets under management (AuM) of all households, rich and poor, using data from 62 markets representing 98% of the world total, compiled by 124 asset management institutions. The Latin American situation is explained by banks' limited exposure to the subprime market in the United States, which helped the region avoid the banking crisis and credit crunch that has affected the rest of the world. The Brazilian wealth management market has been particularly resilient due to the regular growth of assets managed in Latin America. This has little impact, however, on the trend around the world because the $ 2,500 billion AuM in Latin America is only 2.7% of global wealth, which now stands at $93,500 billion (clown from $104,700 billion in 2007). The steepest decline was in North America ($29,300 billion; -21.8%), followed by Japan ($13,500 billion; -7.8%). Global wealth is now concentrated in Europe despite a 5.8% fall (to $32,700). Some $3,000 billion of wealth is found in the Middle East and Africa (a 6.9% fall). The number of millionaire households has suffered the greatest decline, by 22% for example for the holders of more than $5 million, whereas the poorest households (less than $100,000) are the only ones to have seen an increase in their wealth, by 2%. The number of dollar millionaires has slumped by 18% to 9 million. They account for just 0.6% of the population but still hold 35.6% of global wealth. Most of them are in the United States (3.99 million), followed by Europe, Japan and China. The highest ratio of millionaires to population is in Singapore and Switzerland. The share of global wealth in equities has fallen from 39% to 28%, due to a running from risk, and the share of global wealth managed offshore fell by 8.2% to $6,700 billion, around half of it in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. (I.L./transl.fl)