Allianz's latest Global Wealth Report finds that global household financial assets rose 8.6% last year to €268.4 trillion. The study emphasizes that this increase was driven mainly by market revaluations of existing investments — equities, bonds and investment funds — rather than by new savings flows.
What is behind the growth
- New savings volumes declined by more than 5%, so roughly four-fifths of the wealth increase came from portfolio returns.
- Globally, securities now account for nearly half of household financial assets, while growth in bank deposits and pension savings has been comparatively modest.
- Adjusted for inflation, the picture is more muted: although nominal wealth has increased by 50% since 2019, real purchasing-power-adjusted wealth rose by only 23%.
Regional differences
The report shows that real wealth in Western Europe has been essentially flat over the past six years, North America recorded a 21% rise, and China posted a 70% increase.
AI and market vulnerability
Allianz analysts warn that progress in artificial intelligence could strongly influence future market performance. While AI may boost productivity and corporate profits, households' wealth has become overly dependent on AI-fuelled stock-market expectations. The report notes that a 25% market correction could wipe out trillions of dollars of household wealth in the United States and, through a fall in consumption, potentially trigger an economic recession.
Hungary in the global context
Mirroring global trends, Hungarian household financial wealth increased by 9.2% to €320 billion. Although new savings in Hungary declined slightly, the level remains relatively high in regional comparison. A distinctive feature of domestic portfolios is the high share of securities — 63.3% — well above the regional average. Experts say this elevated share is substantially influenced by the domestic popularity of retail government bonds and does not necessarily indicate an unusually high risk appetite among households.
On a real basis, Hungary's nominal growth is more modest: financial asset values adjusted for inflation rose by 4.6%. Unlike international trends, household liabilities in Hungary grew faster than assets, up 12.8%, but overall household indebtedness relative to GDP is moderate compared with peers in Central and Eastern Europe and below the global average.
Per-capita result and ranking
As a result of net wealth gains, Hungary's household financial wealth per capita is just over €28,000, placing the country 29th among those covered in the report.
Methodological note
This article is not investment advice. An AI assistant participated in preparing the report, and the final content was edited and verified by our journalist.
Why this matters
The report highlights that global wealth growth increasingly relies on market performance rather than fresh savings, which raises households' exposure to market volatility — particularly when markets are driven by concentrated expectations about technologies such as AI.
