China's wealthy grow despite graft crackdown

China's dollar millionaires have increased steadily to more than one million, according to an independent publisher, despite a corruption crackdown and austerity programme launched by the government.
The number of millionaires in mainland China rose 3.8 percent from last year to 1.09 million, according to the Hurun Report, a China-based publisher of luxury magazines and compiler of an annual list of the country's richest people.
The number of "super-rich", defined as those people with personal wealth of at least 100 million yuan ($16 million) rose 3.7 percent to 67,000, it said.
"Although we have been seeing a slowdown in spending, the money is still very much there," founder of the Hurun Report, Rupert Hoogewerf, said in the report Thursday.
After Chinese leader Xi Jinping took over as head of the ruling Communist Party at the end of 2012, he launched both a government austerity campaign and anti-corruption drive which has hit the market for luxury products especially hard.
China's political capital Beijing still has the biggest number of wealthy with 192,000 millionaires and 11,300 super-rich, the report said. The southern province of Guangdong and commercial hub Shanghai follow in both categories.
It forecast the number of millionaires in China could reach 1.21 million and super-rich may rise to 73,000 in the next three years, lifted by steady economic growth.
Millionaires in China include private business owners, professional stock market investors, real estate investors and high-salaried executives, the report said.