A survey showed that the financial crisis had pulled the number of millionaire in Hong Kong down 16 percent to 348,000 last year, according to information Xinhua received here Friday.

To reckon the number of people in Hong Kong who possessed current assets of over one million HK dollars (about 128,205 US dollars), Citibank interviewed about 3,300 local residents, aged between 21 to 79, during November to December, 2008.

The results, which was made public on Feb. 19, revealed that there were 414,000 millionaires in 2007, while the population shrank to 348,000 last year. About 66,000 people were no longer on the millionaire's list.

In 2007, the average liquid assets held by each millionaire was 4.6 million HK dollars. It slumped 1.2 million HK dollars to 3.4 million HK dollars last year, told the report.

More than 70 percent of respondents said that their money was lost in investments; about 20 percent in property selling or buying.

The survey also indicated that richer ones were more seriously struck by the financial crisis.

Among those who held over 5 million HK dollars of current assets, about 26 percent of them dropped off the millionaire's list last year, while only 13 percent of such reduction happened among people possessing 1 to 2 million HK dollars.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2009)