North American household wealth overtakes Asia-Pacific, Europe

North American households have overtaken Asia-Pacific and European households as the wealthiest for the first time since 2005 thanks to a boost by the recovery in US house prices and an equity market rally, according to Credit Suisse Group AG.

The recovery in the US economy led to the fifth consecutive year of wealth growth in North America, with wealth rising 12 per cent in the 12 months to mid 2013 to $78.9 trillion.

The Asia-Pacific region, however, took a hit from the 20.5-per cent fall in Japan's wealth as the country flooded its economy with cash, which weakened the yen, according to Credit Suisse's global wealth report.

Wealth in Asia-Pacific was down 3.7 per cent to $73.9 billion, according to the Zurich-based bank.

The US economy had been boosted by the extraordinary monetary stimulus by an annualised rate of 2.5 per cent in the second quarter, faster than the previous three months, government data showed 26 September.

With US house prices increasing 7 per cent during the 12 months to mid 2013, households there were now 54 per cent more wealthy than they were during a recent low in 2008, according to Credit Suisse.

The report said in the US, ''wealth per adult has fully recovered, and is now 10 per cent above the 2006 level.''

''The forthcoming reduction in monetary stimulus announced by the Federal Reserve raises doubts about whether the recovery will continue, but the signs are positive for household wealth in the immediate future.''

Meanwhile, Australians remained the richest people in the world, by one measure of median wealth of adult Australians, which stood at US $219,505 the highest level in the world, according to the Credit Suisse 2013 Global Wealth Report, released on Wednesday.

Median wealth is the midpoint between richest and poorest, meaning that 50 per cent of the population had over $233,504, and 50 per cent less than that.

As regards average wealth, Australians were down to second with US $402,578 per person, ranking behind the Swiss who were the world's richest with US $513,000.

According to Credit Suisse chief investment strategist, Australia, David McDonald, the nation's household wealth per adult grew by 2.6 per cent in the past year, which was slower than the global average of 4.6 per cent, but Australia still had the best distribution of wealth among developed nations.

McDonald said, although Australians were up there at a high level of wealth per adult, they also had a better spread than a lot of the other developed countries including, obviously, the Swiss, but also places like the US.