Chinese billionaires' wealth shrinks 30%

The total wealth of Chinese billionaires this year dropped 30 percent from last year, the sharpest decline among the world's billionaire community, said the World Ultra Wealth Report.

Published by Wealth-X, the report focuses on people with a net worth of $30 million or more, also known as Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, or UHNW.

The global UHNW population this year stands at 187,380, up 0.6 percent from last year. The total wealth of this group reached $25.8 trillion, exceeding the economic scale of the US and China combined.

The wealth of the global billionaires, people with more than $1 billion in assets, rose by 14 percent from last year to $6.2 trillion.

The combined wealth of people worth $30 million to $49 million shrank about 10 percent. The decrease was largely driven by the eurozone crisis and a slowdown in emerging economies, and the losses were the highest in Asia. Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and Japan led the wealth losses across the region.

The 30 percent reduction in the wealth of Chinese billionaires was a result of poor stock market performance, as the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index declined by 20 percent during the measuring period, the report said.

A notable slowdown in China's manufacturing activity, exacerbated by the eurozone instability, and a weak US recovery, were the other factors contributing to the decrease.

"Due to the migration of manufacturing plants to inland provinces, China's real estate and manufacturing moguls in costal provinces have been hit badly," X-Wealth Chief Executive Officer Mykolas D. Rambus told the Legal Evening News.

The population of ultra high net worth individuals in China fell 2.3 percent compared to last year, and its combined value was down 7 percent at $1.6 trillion.