Beijing has overtaken New York as the city with the highest number of
billionaires for the first time, a new report by China-based firm Hurun
says.
A total of 100 billionaires are now living in the Chinese capital, compared to 95 in New York, the report said.
Shanghai, China's centre of commerce came in fifth place.
Hurun, which tracks wealth and luxury in China, has released a Global
Rich List for the past five years measuring billionaires' wealth in US
dollars.
It found that Beijing had welcomed 32 new billionaires since last
year, allowing it to vault past New York which it calculated only saw
four new billionaires.
Overall, China has overtaken the US as the country with the most
number of billionaires. However, the top 10 billionaires in Hurun's list
is still dominated by Americans.
China has 568 billionaires after gaining 90 new ones, compared to the US which only has 535.
China's billionaires boast a combined net worth of $1.4 trillion, which is similar to the GDP of Australia.
Hurun's Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf noted that the growth in China's
wealthy took place despite an economic slowdown and stock market
instability.
He told the AP news agency that it could be due to Chinese market
regulators allowing a flood of new initial public offerings after
holding back new IPOs for several years.
Hurun found that the richest man in China is still Wang Jianlin, who has an estimated worth of $26bn.
But he has not cracked the top 10 billionaires in Hurun's list, which
is dominated by Americans. It is topped by Bill Gates with a net worth
of $80bn, followed by Warren Buffett with $68bn.
In third place is Spanish fashion tycoon Amancio Ortega with a net
worth of $64bn. The report found that that there are now 2,188
billionaires in the world, a new record.
