THE MARKETS

It is an open secret that the center of global economy has been moving from the West towards the East. Financial experts say that the number of money bags in South-East Asia, China and Japan has increased considerably while North American millionaires and billionaires continue to experience nothing but losses. What does the future hold for Russia? The financial situation in the East has been more of less stable. The West continues to struggle with the debt crisis and tries to rescue several countries from bankruptcy. Many may wonder, how the developing countries managed to survive the devastating storm of the world economic crisis. It would be enough to recollect the year 1997, when all Asian markets literally collapsed. Nevertheless, the Asian countries have never stopped their attempts to win foreign capital. As a result, China, India and the countries of South-East Asia rose from the ashes in nearly two years and continued their triumphant recovery. The global list of billionaires can be an example to prove the decline of investors' interest in Europe and North America. City Private Bank, which services world's wealthiest people, confirmed that the number of multimillionaires in the Asian region would continue to grow during the upcoming five years (by approximately 37%). Print version Font Size Send to friend India is said to become the major exporter of men of fortune. For the time being, India has only two dollar billionaires. Russia may also become one of the leaders of the financial race. Russia's Alisher Usmanov is not included on the list of world's 20 richest men, but Forbes has already named him Russia's richest man. North America has to move over with its 17,000 multi-millionaires: the role of developing countries in global economy continues to grow. Many Asian countries will have to turn to Russia to provide its growing industry with fuel. One may assume that the center of global economy will move to Asia (between India and China) by 2050. Russia will only profit from the Asian economic boom. Needless to say that the Asians have not built their economies on the patriotism of their own citizens. Asia's economic rise began during the 1980s. In Japan, for example, the economic growth began with the development of such concerns as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Yasuda and Sumitomo. Developing countries demonstrate an impressive growth of their economies with the help of the exports of raw materials. Investors also point out the rise of financial centers in the Asian countries. The Shanghai Stock Exchange, for example, is ranked sixth in the world on the capitalization of its companies. The stock index of the exchange grew by 303% after the international financial crisis. One should also take account of the huge markets of those countries and their contribution to the IPO. Local companies have attracted nearly $300 billion in the course of the placement of primary bonds. It is worthy of note that the BRICS countries accounted for 39 percent of that amount. Investors turn their heads to Asia and invest in China ($55 billion) and Eastern Europe ($276 billion).