Number of super-rich in Spain grows despite crisis

Forbes has confirmed that Spaniard Amancio Ortega, the founder and chairman of the "Inditex" clothing firm, was the richest man in the world, and other figures published in the week showed that Ortega was not alone among Spain's super-rich.

The data, released by the Spanish Tax Administration (Agencia Tributaria), showed that despite the economic crisis in 2014, 508 Spaniards declared assets worth more than 30 million euros (34 million U.S. dollars).

This represented an 8-percent rise in the number of "super-rich" in comparison with 2013 and is the largest percent increase of any income group in Spain.

In total, Spain's 181,874 richest people declared assets of 555.5 billion euros, with 233.9 billion euros of that held in stocks and shares and a further 75 billion euros in SICAV collective investment schemes which offer significant tax advantages as they are only liable to pay corporate income tax at a rate of 1.0 percent.

Meanwhile, Spain's super-rich declared 53.8 billion euros in their bank accounts, real estate to the value of 99.5 billion euros, as well as cars, boats, aircraft, jewelry, and clothing worth 602 million euros; a further 503 million was invested in works of art. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars) Endit