World’s 26 richest billionaires own as much as poorest 50%

In an annual wealth check released to mark the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the development charity Oxfam said 2018 had been a year in which the rich had grown richer and the poor poorer.

Oxfam said the wealth of more than 2,200 billionaires across the globe had increased by $900 billion in 2018 – or $2.5 billion a day. Billionaire fortunes increased by 12% last year – or $2.5 billion a day – while the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth decline by 11%, reveals the new report from Oxfam.

26 richest billionaires own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up for the poorest half of the planet’s population. In the 10 years since the financial crisis, the number of billionaires has nearly doubled, Oxfam said, adding between 2017 and 2018, a new billionaire was created every two days.

The world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, saw his fortune increase to $112 billion. Just 1% of his fortune is equivalent to the whole health budget for Ethiopia, a country of 105 million people.