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The group's report comes as some of the world's political and financial elite prepare for an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The wealth of the world's billionaires will grow three times faster in 2024 than the previous year, global advocacy group Oxfam International says, as some of the world's political and financial elite prepare to attend an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
In its latest assessment of global inequality, timed to open the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting, Oxfam said on Monday that the combined wealth of billionaires rose by $2 trillion to $15 trillion last year.
The reporttitled Takers Not Makers, said there are 2,769 billionaires in the world 2024an increase of 204 over the previous year. It noted that at least four new billionaires were “minted” every week during the year, and three-fifths of billionaire wealth came from inheritance, monopoly power or “circle connections.”
Oxfam predicts that at least five trillionaires will emerge in the next decade. A year ago, the group predicted that only one trillionaire would emerge during this period.
“The takeover of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once thought unimaginable. The failure to stop the billionaires now breeds future trillionaires. Not only has the rate of wealth accumulation of billionaires accelerated – threefold – but so has their power,” Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar said in a statement.
The group warned that United States President-elect Donald Trump's policies “are set to further fan the flames of inequality.”
On average, a billionaire's wealth grows by $2 million a day, Oxfam said. The 10 richest billionaires are getting richer by an average of $100 million a day. Even if they lost 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would still be billionaires, it said.
In contrast, the report said the number of people living below the World Bank's poverty line had “barely budged” since the 1990s and the number of people are starving rises up.
The report is based on data from sources including estimates of the wealth of billionaires made by the US business magazine Forbes and data from the World Bank.
The WEF meeting in the Alpine village of Davos, which begins on Monday, is expected to host around 3,000 participants, including business leaders, academics, government officials and civic group leaders.
Trump, who has visited Davos twice during his first term and is due to be sworn in on Monday, is expected to participate in the forum via video on Thursday. He has been a champion for a long time accumulation of wealth – including his own – and counts multi-billionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser.
“What you're seeing right now is a billionaire president being sworn in today, backed by the richest man. So it's pretty much the crown jewel of the global oligarchies,” Oxfam's Behar said, referring to Trump and Musk.
“It's not about one particular person. This is the economic system we've created where billionaires can now almost shape economic policies, social policies, which ultimately gives them more and more profits,” he added.
The group called on governments to tax the richest to reduce inequality and extreme wealth and “break the new aristocracy”. He also called for steps such as breaking up monopolies, capping CEO pay and regulating corporations to ensure they pay “living wages” to workers.
