Spain’s millionaire club up 13 percent in a year

A total of 47,000 people joined the ranks of Spain's US dollar millionaires in 2012, the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2013 reveals.

That's a rise of 13 percent and means 402,000 people living in Spain — or one in every hundred people — can be counted among the world's super-wealthy.

Only seven other developed countries saw a more rapid growth in the number of people with assets of at least $1 million (€740,000) in the period in question.

Spain has also consolidated its position in the rich country group — those counties with mean wealth per adult of over $100,000. 

The mean wealth in Spain is now €124,000, or some 60 percent of the eurozone average.

Credit Suisse pinned the rise in the number of Spain's millionaires on upward movements in the world's stock markets.

The improved exchange rate between the euro and the US dollar and falling house prices were also partly responsible for the higher number of millionaires in Spain, said the financial giant.

Global wealth has reached a new all-time high of $241 trillion, up 4.9 percent  since 2012 last year and 68 percent since 2003, Credit Suisse said in its report. 

The USA accounted for 72 percent of the latest increase, the report's authors added.