As inequality widens, the wealth of the world's 10 richest people doubles as the plague: Oxfam

Wealth of world’s 10 richest men doubled in pandemic as inequality widens: Oxfam The world’s 10 wealthiest men doubled their fortunes during the Covid-19 pandemic as poverty and inequality soared, an Oxfam study revealed on Monday.

 

The charity, which is focused on combating global poverty, said the 10 wealthiest men’s fortunes skyrocketed collectively from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion, at a rate of around $1.3 billion per day. While the pandemic has made the world’s wealthiest far richer it has led to more people living in poverty, according to the charity firm.

 

Oxfam, which typically releases a report on global inequality at the start of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, said in its “Inequality Kills” report that over 160 million people are projected to have been pushed into poverty.

 

“It has never been so important to start righting the violent wrongs of this obscene inequality by clawing back elites’ power and extreme wealth including through taxation -getting that money back into the real economy and to save lives,” Oxfam International’s executive director Gabriela Bucher said.