Billionaires’ wealth rose three times faster to US$2 trillion in 2024, claims report
New Delhi|The wealth of billionaires worldwide will rise by US$2 trillion to US$15 trillion in 2024, three times more than last year. This has been said in a study released by Oxfam on Monday.
In its Major Inequality Report, released each year on the first day of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, Oxfam International compares the huge jump in the wealth of billionaires and the number of people living in poverty to no substantial change since 1990.
Oxfam said billionaires’ wealth in Asia will increase by US$299 billion in 2024. He also predicted that there would be at least five trillionaires within a decade. In the year 2024, 204 new billionaires were created-about four every week on average. According to the report, 41 new billionaires were created in Asia this year alone.
In its report titled ‘Takers, Not Makers’ Oxfam said the richest 1 percent of the Global North earned US$30 million an hour from the Global South through financial systems in 2023. It further noted that 60 percent of billionaires’ wealth is now derived from inheritance, monopoly power, or crony relations, indicating that “the billionaires’ excessive wealth is largely not legitimate.”
Oxfam urged governments around the world to tax the richest people to reduce inequality, eliminate excessive wealth, and end the new elite. It also demanded that the former colonial powers should pay reparations for the wrongs committed in the past. Billionaires’ wealth grew at an average of USD 5.7 billion a day in 2024, while the number of billionaires grew from 2,565 to 2,769 in 2023.
The wealth of billionaires worldwide will rise by US$2 trillion to US$15 trillion in 2024, three times more than last year. This has been said in a study released by Oxfam on Monday.
In its Major Inequality Report, released each year on the first day of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, Oxfam International compares the huge jump in the wealth of billionaires and the number of people living in poverty to no substantial change since 1990.
Oxfam said billionaires’ wealth in Asia will increase by US$299 billion in 2024. He also predicted that there would be at least five trillionaires within a decade. In the year 2024, 204 new billionaires were created-about four every week on average. According to the report, 41 new billionaires were created in Asia this year alone.
In its report titled ‘Takers, Not Makers’ Oxfam said the richest 1 percent of the Global North earned US$30 million an hour from the Global South through financial systems in 2023. It further noted that 60 percent of billionaires’ wealth is now derived from inheritance, monopoly power, or crony relations, indicating that “the billionaires’ excessive wealth is largely not legitimate.”
Oxfam urged governments around the world to tax the richest people to reduce inequality, eliminate excessive wealth, and end the new elite. It also demanded that the former colonial powers should pay reparations for the wrongs committed in the past. Billionaires’ wealth grew at an average of USD 5.7 billion a day in 2024, while the number of billionaires rose from 2,565 in 2023 to 2,769. Oxfam said the wealth of the world’s ten richest people grew by about USD 100 million a day on average even if they lost 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would still remain billionaires.
Oxfam, whose annual inequality report is widely debated at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, said that contrary to popular belief, the wealth of billionaires has largely been acquired without earnings-60 percent of the wealth of billionaires comes from inheritance, monopoly power or crony relations.
