India’s households miss global shift to financial assets: UBS
The report stated that global personal wealth will increase by 10.8 percent in US dollar terms in 2025, more than double the pace recorded in each of the previous two years. “The world quickly became significantly richer again in 2025. Personal wealth increased by over 10%, driven by strong markets and rising non-financial assets,” the report said.
Also read: India to have 26,000 high-income families by 2030, report says
But UBS warned that the gains were not shared equally. “This growth was driven by strong financial markets and a significant increase in non-financial assets… But the gains were uneven: while average wealth increased significantly, average wealth actually fell in most markets, underscoring the growing gap between the richest and the wider population,” the report said.
In this context, India stood out not with the size of its financial wealth, but with its composition. According to the report, financial assets account for just 25.8 per cent of gross wealth in India, among the lowest shares in the 56 markets covered by the study. By comparison, financial assets account for more than 80 percent of household wealth in Sweden, Israel and Taiwan, about 79 percent in the United States and about 52 percent in mainland China.
UBS points out the sharp differences in how household wealth is held across countries, saying, “At the other end of the scale, we find less than 20 percent in Türkiye, less than 26 percent in India, just over 31 percent in Spain and close to 44 percent in Germany.” he said.
The report also showed that Indian households carry relatively low debt compared to many developed economies. Debt accounts for 8.2 percent of gross wealth in India, compared with more than 20 percent in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, 23.4 percent in Brazil, and nearly 11 percent in the United States, Germany and China.Also read: India’s richer middle class lives more dollar-dependent lives while earning rupees
UBS said there were “large differences in the level of debt” across countries and that India was among the markets where household leverage remained relatively modest.
The findings show that global wealth creation in 2025 receives a strong boost from financial markets, with Indian household wealth continuing to be largely tied to non-financial assets such as real estate and other physical assets, making India’s wealth profile significantly different from many developed economies.
