Last October, amid widespread speculation about the direction of US rates and fears about the global economy, Switzerland’s Bank Julius Baer released its annual Wealth Report. The document, which tracked the rise and fall of wealth among the very rich, provided a tonic to the doom and gloom heard from some parts of the market.
Julius Baer told its clients that the wealth held by high net worth investors in countries across Asia would jump in the next five years. Among a raft of predictions, it said that the wealth held by investors in the Philippines would grow to $197 billion in 2020, from $60 billion in 2010. It also...