Falling house prices and the weaker Australian dollar caused the number of millionaires in the country to tumble, with 124,000 falling below the global mark in US dollar terms.
Wealth per adult slid from $US411,060 ($A599,000) to $US386,060 ($A563,000), meaning the average Aussie lost $36,000 over the year, according to Credit Suisse’s 2019 global wealth report.
No country in the world lost as much as Australia, which fell from being second in the global ranking in 2018 to fourth in 2019.
Average wealth per adult in the nation was only marginally better than the 2011 figure of $US384,640 ($A560,000).
Credit Suisse defines wealth in the annual rankings as the value of financial and real assets by households in relation to debt.
Median wealth in Australia in 2018 was the highest in the world at $US191,453 ($A279,000), but it was overtaken by Switzerland after falling to $US181,361 ($A264,000) in 2019.
Up until the May federal election, the national housing market had lost billions of dollars in value over an 18-month period, which Credit Suisse attributed to the declining wealth of average Aussies.
Three rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of Australia also weighed on the currency, which has steadily depreciated over the year.
information from: www.news.com.au