Beijing has surpassed New York City to become the “billionaire capital of the world” with 100 resident billionaires to the US business and cultural capital’s 95, a survey showed.
The number of Beijing billionaires rose by 32 from last year, while New York’s tally rose by just four, according to the Hurun Report, a China-based publisher of luxury magazines and compiler of an annual list of the country’s richest people.
Moscow came in third, with 66 billionaires.
“Despite its own slowdown and falling stock markets, China minted more new billionaires than any other country in the world last year, mainly on the back of new listings,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, its chairman and chief researcher.
Different lists of the world’s wealthiest, including Forbes, Bloomberg and Hurun, produce different results based on varying methodologies.
Last year, Greater China surpassed the US to become home to the largest population of billionaires in the world, Hurun said in a previous October report.
Its new figures, released on Wednesday, said that the region is now home to 568 billionaires – 90 more than last year – with a combined net worth of $1.4tn, a sum comparable to the GDP of Australia.
Just over 40% of the world’s billionaires under 40 reside in China, the report added.
In comparison, 535 billionaires call the US home – two fewer than last year.
China’s richest man, real estate and entertainment magnate Wang Jianlin, ranked 21st on Hurun’s list of the world’s richest people with a net worth of $26bn, behind the likes of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and investor Warren Buffett.
Other Chinese billionaires on the list include Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, and the heads of tech giants Tencent and Baidu, as well as the chief executives of leading beverage producer Wahaha and electronics company Xiaomi.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s richest saw their fortunes slump by up to half last year, Forbes said yesterday, as the country grapples with weak oil prices and a financial scandal.
The number of billionaires shrunk by a quarter last year, to 12 from 16, according to the ranking of the 50 wealthiest Malaysians, while only six people on the list grew their fortunes.
Energy-dependent Malaysia’s economic outlook has been a source of major concern since oil prices began to plunge in mid-2014. They are now trading around $30 a barrel, down some 70%.
A slump in the ringgit, Asia’s worst-performing currency last year, along with a scandal involving Prime Minister Najib Razak and a state-owned investment company have further rattled financial markets. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
“With the stock market falling 8.7% and the ringgit losing 12.6% of its value against the dollar, it was a difficult year for Malaysian tycoons,” Forbes said in a statement.
“The slowdown in China and the continuing political showdown in the capital also hurt business. The worldwide oil and gas depression also took a toll on fortunes related to that industry.”
Forbes calculates the rankings in US dollars, which means fortunes held in ringgits are worth less when the Malaysian currency falls.
Among the biggest losers were Goh Peng Ooi, owner of financial-software company Silverlake Axis, whose net worth plunged some 50% to $725mn.
Tycoon Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary also lost half his fortune, but sneaked into ninth position with $1.45bn.  Businessman Robert Kuok topped the list for the eleventh year in a row with a net worth of $10bn, although this was down from $11.3bn in last year’s list.
One of the few winners was glovemaker Kuan Kam Hon, who joined the ranks of billionaires with $1.1bn worth of assets.