Oxfam report finds billionaires' wealth soared in 2024 as global elite prepare for Davos

FRANCE24

WEB NEWS
Sun 19 January 2025 


A logo of the World Economic Forum is pictured in the Congress Centre in Davos, Switzerland, on January 13, 2024.


Oxfam International reported that billionaires' wealth increased three times faster in 2024, outpacing the previous year's growth. Ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the group also forecasts the emergence of five trillionaires within a decade, intensifying concerns over global inequality.

Billionaires' wealth grew three times faster in 2024 than the year before, a top anti-poverty group reported on Monday as some of the world's political and financial elite prepared for an annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Oxfam International, in its latest assessment of global inequality timed to the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting, also predicts at least five trillionaires will crop up over the next decade. A year ago, the group forecast that only one trillionaire would appear during that time.

OxFam's research adds weight to a warning by outgoing President Joe Biden last week of a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people.” The group's sharp-edged report, titled “Takers Not Makers,” also says the number of people in poverty has barely budged since 1990.
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The World Economic Forum expects to host some 3,000 attendees, including business executives, academics, government officials, and civic group leaders at its annual meeting in the Alpine village of Davos.

“What you’re seeing at the moment is a billionaire president taking oaths today, backed by the richest man. So this is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the global oligarchies,” Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said in an interview, referring to Trump and Musk.

(AP)


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Wealth of world’s billionaires grew by $2tn in 2024, report finds

Julia Kollewe
Sun 19 January 2025
THE GUARDIAN

The report reveals the world is on track to have five trillionaires within a decade.Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA


The wealth of the world’s billionaires grew by $2tn (£1.64tn) last year, three times faster than in 2023, amounting to $5.7bn (£4.7bn) a day, according to a report by Oxfam.

The latest inequality report from the charity reveals that the world is now on track to have five trillionaires within a decade, a change from last year’s forecast of one trillionaire within 10 years.

The report, entitled Takers Not Makers, comes as many of the world’s political leaders, corporate executives and the super-rich travel to the Swiss ski resort of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum meeting from Monday.

Oxfam’s examination of billionaire assets also coincides with Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president. Trump is expected to include several billionaires in his team of close advisers, including the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive, Elon Musk, and to offer large-scale tax breaks to the wealthiest US citizens.

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At the same time, the number of people living under the World Bank poverty line of $6.85 a day has barely changed since 1990, and is close to 3.6 billion – equivalent to 44% of the world’s population today, the charity said. One in 10 women lives in extreme poverty (below $2.15 a day), which means 24.3 million more women than men endure extreme poverty.

Oxfam warned that progress on reducing poverty has ground to a halt and that extreme poverty could be ended three times faster if inequality were to be reduced.

The UK has the highest proportion of billionaire wealth among G7 countries, where wealth climbed by £35m a day to £182bn in 2024. Four new billionaires emerged last year, taking the UK total to 57. They are Mark Dixon, who runs the flexible office provider IWG; Sunder Genomal, the founder of Page Industries, a Bengaluru-based garment business; Donald Mackenzie, a Scottish tycoon who co-founded private equity firm CVC; and Jim Thompson, the founder of moving company Crown Worldwide.

Rising share values on global stock exchanges account for most of the increase in billionaire wealth, though higher property values also played a role. Residential property accounts for about 80% of worldwide investments.

Globally, the number of billionaires rose by 204 last year to 2,769. Their combined wealth jumped from $13tn to $15tn in just 12 months – the second-largest annual increase since records began. The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men grew on average by almost $100m a day and even if they lost 99% of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires.

They include the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $219.4bn, whose Amazon “empire” accounts for 70% or more of online purchases in Germany, France, the UK and Spain. Aliko Dangote, with a net worth of $11bn, is Africa’s richest person, holding a “near-monopoly” on cement in Nigeria and dominating the market across Africa, the report said.

The report argues that most of the wealth is taken, not earned, as 60% comes from either inheritance, “cronyism and corruption” or monopoly power. It calculates that 18% of the wealth arises from monopoly power.

According to the Forbes’ real time billionaires list, the richest people in the world are Musk; Bezos; Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook and Meta co-founder; Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle; and the LVMH founder Bernard Arnault. At Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg are expected to sit close together, in a sign of the tech companies’ rapidly growing influence on politics.

Oxfam calls for bold solutions to “radically reduce inequality and hardwire fairness into our economies”.

Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s inequality policy lead, said: “Last year we predicted the first trillionaire could emerge within a decade, but this shocking acceleration of wealth means that the world is now on course for at least five. The global economic system is broken, wholly unfit for purpose as it enables and perpetuates this explosion of riches, while nearly half of humanity continues to live in poverty.”

She called on the UK government to prioritise economic policies that bring down inequality, including higher taxation of the super-rich.

“Huge sums of money could be raised, to tackle inequality here in the UK and overseas and provide crucial investment for our public services. For the first time, with the groundbreaking G20 agreement to cooperate on taxing the world’s super-rich [last July], there is genuine momentum to implement fairer taxation globally.”


Total wealth of UK billionaires increased by £35m per day in 2024 – Oxfam

Rosie Shead, PA
Sun 19 January 2025 



The collective wealth of UK billionaires increased by £35 million per day to a total of £182 billion in 2024, according to a report from Oxfam.

This growth in cash would be enough to cover the city of Manchester in £10 notes almost one-and-a-half times, the anti-poverty charity said.

Last year, four new billionaires were created in the UK, taking the country’s current total to 57, according to the report.

Oxfam has called on the Government to support higher taxation on the super-rich which, the organisation said, could be used to tackle inequality in the UK and overseas and invest in public services.

The charity’s inequality policy lead Anna Marriott said: “For the first time, with the groundbreaking G20 agreement to co-operate on taxing the world’s super-rich, there is genuine momentum to implement fairer taxation globally.

“The UK should champion this opportunity to help build more equal societies at home and abroad.”

The report, titled Takers Not Makers, revealed that global billionaire wealth grew by two trillion US dollars last year, from 13 trillion to 15 trillion, which is equivalent to around 5.7 billion US dollars per day.

The world is now on track to see five trillionaires within a decade, the charity said.

On average, the wealth of the world’s 10 richest people, all of whom are men, grew by almost 100 million US dollars per day.

If the 10 men lost 99% of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires, the charity said.

Meanwhile, Oxfam highlighted that 44% of the world’s population currently lives on less than 6.85 US dollars per day, according to data from the World Bank.

Ms Marriott said the data revealed a “shocking acceleration of wealth” over the last year.

She added: “The global economic system is broken, wholly unfit for purpose as it enables and perpetuates this explosion of riches, while nearly half of humanity continues to live in poverty.”

Oxfam said its analysis highlighted that billionaire wealth is “largely unearned”, and that, globally, 60% comes from “inheritance, monopoly power, or crony connections – between the richest and governments”.

The charity is calling for a new global UN tax convention which would ensure the world’s wealthiest people and corporations “pay their fair share” along with the abolition of “tax havens”.

The annual report was published as business leaders gather in Davos for the World Economic Forum annual meeting this week and is based on data from Forbes’ 2024 Real-Time Billionaires List.

New 'oligarchy' under fire as elites descend on Davos

Ali BEKHTAOUI
Sun 19 January 2025


The Swiss Alpine resort hosts the World Economic Forum every winter 

 (Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP/AFP)

A leading NGO warned Monday of an emerging "aristocratic oligarchy" with massive political clout and primed to profit from Donald Trump's presidency, as global elites descend on Davos for their annual confab.

The World Economic Forum kicks off in the Swiss Alpine resort on the same day as the presidential inauguration of Trump, who will not be in Davos but will make an online appearance later in the week.

Global charity Oxfam said in a report that Trump's election win and tax-cut plans are a boon to billionaires, whose combined wealth already grew by another $2 trillion last year to $15 trillion.

"Trillions are being gifted in inheritance, creating a new aristocratic oligarchy that has immense power in our politics and our economy," Oxfam said in its traditional annual pre-Davos report on the super rich.

The organisation echoed similar language used last week by outgoing US President Joe Biden, who sounded the alarm about an extremely wealthy oligarchy that "literally threatens our entire democracy".

Oxfam pointed out that Tesla and X owner Elon Musk helped to bankroll Trump's campaign.

"The crown jewel of this oligarchy is a billionaire president, backed and bought by the world's richest man Elon Musk, running the world's largest economy," said the charity's executive director Amitabh Behar.

"We present this report as a stark wake up-call that ordinary people the world over are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few," Behar added.

- Five trillionaires -

The report, titled "Takers Not Makers", found that 204 new billionaires emerged last year -- almost four every week -- to bring the total to 2,769.

Total billionaire wealth grew three times faster last year than in 2023, each billionaire seeing their fortune increase by $2 million per day on average. And, according to Oxfam, five trillionaires could emerge in a decade.

Trump's election "gave a huge further boost to billionaire fortunes, while his policies are set to fan the flames of inequality further", Oxfam said.

In the United States "we are in a situation where you can buy a country, with the risk of weakening democracy", said the head of Oxfam France, Cecile Duflot.

The world's three richest men will be at his inauguration: Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta empire owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The tech trio is not expected in Davos, however.

- 'Tax the rich' -

Some 3,000 participants are expected at the Swiss ski village for the forum ending Friday -- including 60 heads of state or government and more than 900 CEOs -- for days of schmoozing and behind-the-scenes dealmaking.

A few hundred protesters blocked an access road to Davos on Sunday, holding banners reading "tax the rich" and "burn the system", and causing a traffic jam until police dispersed them.

"The WEF symbolises how much power wealthy people like me hold," said Austrian-German heiress Marlene Engelhorn, who gave away the bulk of her multi-million-euro inheritance to dozens of organisations working on social issues.

"Because just because we are born millionaires, or because we got lucky once -- and call that self-made -- we now get to influence politicians worldwide with our political preferences," she told AFP.

While Trump will not be in Davos in person, his presidency will dominate discussions. His plans to impose trade tariffs, loosen regulations, extend tax breaks and curb immigration will have far-reaching effects on the global economy.

He has named hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as his Treasury secretary, while billionaire businessman Howard Lutnick will head the Commerce Department.

Rising inequalities have fuelled debates about imposing a global tax on the super-rich.

"I don't want to live in a country with a few rich people and lots of poor people," said Morris Pearl, a former managing director at investment giant BlackRock. He is now a member of Patriotic Millionaires, a group that backs raising taxes on the rich.

"I'm afraid that we're going to have civil unrest if we don't change things," Pearl told AFP.

alb/lth/jj


Australian billionaires make $67,000 an hour, Oxfam says in call for tax on super-rich
Cait Kelly
Sun 19 January 2025 at 4:04 pm GMT-8·2-min read


Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart are two of Australia’s richest people.Composite: Getty Images


Australia’s 47 billionaires take home an average of A$67,000 an hour, over 1,300 times more than the average Australian, new Oxfam analysis reveals, as the anti-poverty organisation calls for the major parties to tax the fortunes of the super-rich to tackle inequality.

Using data from Forbes’ real-time billionaires list – which categorises billionaires in US dollars – to identify Australian billionaires, the report Takers Not Makers calculated that in 2024 Australian billionaire wealth rose by more than 8% or A$28bn, at a staggering rate of A$3.2m an hour.

If calculated in Australian dollars, the number of billionaires sits higher at 150, according to the AFR’s 2024 rich list.

Oxfam Australia’s chief executive, Lyn Morgain, said billionaire wealth in Australia was largely driven by “inheritance and ongoing impacts of colonialism”.

Along with real estate, the metals and mining industry has made the most billionaires in Australia. The top two richest Australians, according to the most recent Forbes data – Gina Rinehart, worth US$30bn, and Andrew Forrest, worth US$16.3bn – both made their billions out of mining.

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Forrest, the former boss and current non-executive chairman of the mining and green energy company Fortescue Metals Group, has previously stated he will give away his wealth.

Morgain said: “What we can see is a direct relationship between the wealth of Australia’s many billionaires and the extraction of resources from traditional lands and the owners of First Nations.”

In Australia, 35% of billionaire wealth was inherited, she said, while a third of the First Nations peoples were in the poorest 20% of the population.

“Because billionaire wealth is often rooted in unearned privilege, much of it tied to intergenerational advantage and colonial powers, much of it goes untaxed,” Morgain said.

Oxfam is calling for a “relatively modest” wealth tax, where Australian billionaires are taxed between 2-5% of their overall wreath.

“The ultra-wealthy aren’t even going to notice it, but the effect would be to bring literally billions back into the public coffers,” she said. “And that would enable everything from schools to hospitals to adequate housing.

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“As the federal election looms, it’s critical that our political leaders take bold steps to ensure the super-rich pay their fair share of taxes. There’s no other way that we can achieve that distribution of resources.”

Last year, Oxfam predicted the emergence of the first trillionaire within a decade. However, with billionaire wealth accelerating at a faster pace, this projection has been adjusted and is now on track to see at least five trillionaires within that timeframe.