Davos, 20 Jan  

Billionaire wealth across the globe surged by USD 2 trillion in 2024 to USD 15 trillion at a rate three times faster than the previous year, a study showed on Monday here as the richest of the world began to assemble for their annual jamboree in this ski resort town.

In its flagship inequity report released every year on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Oxfam International contrasted the huge jump in the billionaire wealth with the number of people living in poverty barely having changed since 1990.

Wealth of billionaires in Asia increased by USD 299 billion in 2024, Oxfam said while predicting that there will be at least five trillionaires within a decade from now.

The year 2024 saw 204 new billionaires getting minted -- an average of nearly four every week. Asia itself got 41 new billionaires in the year.

In its report titled 'Takers, not Makers', Oxfam said the richest 1 per cent in the Global North extracted USD 30 million an hour from the Global South through the financial systems in 2023.

It further said that 60 per cent of billionaire wealth is now derived from inheritance, monopoly power or crony connections, showing that "extreme billionaire wealth is largely unmerited."

The rights group urged governments across the world to tax the richest to reduce inequality, end extreme wealth, and dismantle the new aristocracy. It also sought that the former colonial powers must address past harms with reparations.

Oxfam International's Executive Director Amitabh Behar told PTI here that the new inequality report shows there is an enormous explosion in the billionaire wealth and this is more worrisome due to the growing number of people living with hunger.

This only flags the issue of modern day colonialism in the form of multinational corporates grabbing a huge portion of wealth being created, he said.

Behar said Oxfam is strongly pitching for taxing super-rich more and welcomed the growing traction across the world for taxing the wealthiest more. Even bodies like IMF and World Bank are expressing concern about this level of inequality, he added.

On the inauguration of the second presidency of Donald Trump, he said it is a wake-up call that a billionaire President is coming in with the world's richest person as his top advisor.

It will also be the richest cabinet in the history of the US with as many as 13 billionaires and expectations for the rich getting benefits are adding to the concerns, he added.

On India and his expectations from the union budget, he said the government must try to address the issue of inequality including by way of much more progressive taxing and more investments in education, among other measures.

A lot of people believed that colonialism ended long back but the fact is it is thriving even today in the form of wealth going out from Global South to the richest of the Global North.

The billionaire's wealth grew in 2024 at an average of USD 5.7 billion a day, while the number of billionaires rose to 2,769, from 2,565 in 2023.

The wealth of the world's ten richest men grew on average by almost USD 100 million a day — even if they lost 99 per cent of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires, Oxfam said.

Oxfam, whose annual inequity report is debated extensively at WEF Annual Meeting, said that contrary to the popular perception, billionaire wealth is largely unearned -- 60 per cent of billionaire wealth now comes from inheritance, monopoly power or crony connections.

Unmerited wealth and colonialism -- understood as not only a history of brutal wealth extraction but also a powerful force behind today's extreme levels of inequality -- stand as two major drivers of billionaire wealth accumulation, it said.

"The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable. The failure to stop billionaires is now spawning soon-to-be trillionaires. Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated —by three times— but so too has their power," Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar said.

"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. 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," he said.

Oxfam calculated that 36 per cent of billionaire wealth is now inherited.

It said that the research by Forbes found that every billionaire under 30 has inherited their wealth, while UBS estimated that over 1,000 of today's billionaires will pass on more than USD 5.2 trillion to their heirs over the next two to three decades.

"Many of the super-rich, particularly in Europe, owe part of their wealth to historical colonialism and the exploitation of poorer countries," Oxfam said.

It cited the example of the fortune of billionaire Vincent Bollore, who has put his sprawling media empire at the service of France's nationalist right, which was built partly from colonial activities in Africa.

Calling it modern day colonialism, Oxfam said vast sums of money still flow from the Global South to countries in the Global North and their richest citizens.

The richest 1 per cent in Global North countries like the US, UK and France extracted USD 30 million an hour from the Global South through the financial system in 2023, Oxfam said.

Global North countries control 69 per cent of global wealth, 77 per cent of billionaire wealth and are home to 68 per cent of billionaires, despite making up just 21 per cent of the global population, the study said.

Behar said the money desperately needed in every country to invest in teachers, buy medicines and create good jobs is being siphoned off to the bank accounts of the super-rich.

"This is not just bad for the economy, it is bad for humanity," he said.

Oxfam cited the World Bank data that the actual number of people living on less than USD 6.85 a day has barely changed since 1990.

Citing Forbes data, it said the largest annual increase in billionaire wealth occurred in 2021 at USD 5.8 trillion, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and termed the USD 2 trillion surge in 2024 as the second highest.

It said that 60 per cent of billionaire wealth is either from crony or monopolistic sources or inherited -- 36 per cent inherited, 18 per cent from monopoly power, and 6 per cent from crony connections.

Oxfam further cited ILO to say that women in the informal economy are more often found in the most vulnerable situations, for instance as domestic workers, home-based workers or contributing family workers, than their male counterparts.

ILO data also shows that migrant workers in high-income countries earn about 12.6 per cent less than nationals, on average, Oxfam said.

The pay gap between men nationals and migrant women in high-income countries is estimated at 20.9 per cent, which is much wider than the aggregate gender pay gap in high-income countries (16.2 per cent), it added.