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Spain's richest 10 percent control 52.8 percent of wealth: study

Xinhua, January 25, 2017 Adjust font size:

A study by the Bank of Spain has found that in 2014, the richest 10 percent of Spaniards controlled assets equivalent to about 52.8 percent of the wealth of the country.

The "Study into Family Finances" published on Tuesday also shows that the super richest 1 percent are seeing wealth increase while the poor are getting poorer and sliding into debt.

The study, which focused on the period, 2011-2014 shows that in 2014 the richest 10 percent of Spaniards had an average patrimony of 1.29 million euros, compared with the 1.23 million they had three years earlier. That amounts to 52.8 percent of the wealth in Spain.

But with debts taken into consideration, the top 10 percent actually have less wealth than at the start of the financial crisis in 2008, when they had an average patrimony of 1.35 million euros, according to the study.

Meanwhile the average earnings of the top 10 percent stood at 67,000 euros in 2014, compared with the 80,300 euros they earned in 2011.

But the picture for the richest 1 percent in Spain is different, as they controlled 20.23 percent of the wealth by the end of 2014, much higher than the share of 16.87 percent in 2011.

The Bank of Spain attributes the increase to the markets which allowed investments in financial products to grow during a period in which the Ibex-35 stock exchange rose by around 20 percent.

However, while some of the super-rich were getting richer, it was a different story at the other end of the scale with the poorest 25 percent of Spain sliding into debt, ending the 2011-14 period with an average negative patrimony (ie debts) of 1,300 euros. Endit