In an annual wealth examine launched to mark the beginning of the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, the event charity Oxfam stated 2018 had been a yr by which the wealthy had grown richer and the poor poorer. Because of this, the report concluded, the variety of billionaires proudly owning as a lot wealth as half the world’s inhabitants fell from 43 in 2017 to 26 final yr. The Guardian experiences:

Oxfam stated the wealth of greater than 2,200 billionaires throughout the globe had elevated by $900bn in 2018 – or $2.5bn a day. The 12% enhance within the wealth of the very richest contrasted with a fall of 11% within the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s inhabitants …

Among the many findings of the report have been:

* Within the 10 years because the monetary disaster, the variety of billionaires has almost doubled.

* Between 2017 and 2018 a brand new billionaire was created each two days.
The world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, the proprietor of Amazon, noticed his fortune enhance to $112bn. Simply 1% of his fortune is equal to the entire well being finances for Ethiopia, a rustic of 105 million individuals.