China wealth to eclipse Japan in 2017

China is set to become the world’s second-wealthiest nation after the US by 2017, leapfrogging Japan for the title, Bloomberg reported. The projection came as part of a report by Boston Consulting Group that studied global wealth and offshore financial centers. The report said that Asian millionaires prefer financial centers in the region over those in Europe. As a result, Asian wealth outside of Japan grew by 14% to US$28 trillion in 2012. Hong Kong and Singapore alone saw offshore wealth assets jump by 20% to US$1.2 trillion. Boston Consulting also found that global private financial wealth increased by 7.8% to US$135.5 trillion in 2012, outpacing the growth during the previous two years.