Forbes annual rich list, Beijing currently has more billionaires than any other city on the planet.

News Desk,8 April (Sky News Bureau)

According to the business journal, the Chinese capital added 33 billionaires last year and now has 100. This narrowly beats out New York City, which has had the top spot for the past seven years with 99.

China’s quick containment of Covid-19, the rise of its technology firms and stock markets helped it gain top spot.

Despite the fact that Beijing currently has more billionaires than New York City, the total net worth of New York City’s billionaires remains US$80 billion (£58 billion) higher than that of their Beijing equivalents.

Zhang Yiming, the founder of the video-sharing app TikTok and CEO of its parent company ByteDance, was Beijing’s wealthiest resident. His net worth increased to $35.6 billion.

In contrast, New York City’s richest resident, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had a fortune worth $59bn.

China, whose figure included Hong Kong and Macao in the Forbes count, added more billionaires to the list than any other country globally, with 210 newcomers.

Half of China’s new billionaires made their fortunes from manufacturing or technology ventures, including female billionaire Kate Wang, who made her money from e-cigarettes. With 698 billionaires, China is closing in on the US, which still leads with 724 billionaires.

A record 493 newcomers joined the list globally last year, roughly one new billionaire every 17 hours, according to Forbes. India had the third-highest number of billionaires, with 140. In total, the 1,149 billionaires from Asia Pacific were worth $4.7tn, compared with the US billionaires’ $4.4 tn.