Uneven arithmetic of wealth: 62 = 3.6 billion
BUSINESS RECORD STAFF Jan 18, 2016 | 9:11 pm
1 min read time
267 wordsAll Latest News, Banking and FinanceThe wealth divide between the world’s richest and poorest is turning into a Grand Canyon, judging by a report today from Oxfam, MarketWatch reported.
Last year, just 62 individuals held wealth equivalent to the amount owned by 3.6 billion people, about half the world’s population, according to the Oxfam report, which was published ahead of the World Economic Forum’s annual winter meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
“Oxfam’s prediction — made ahead of last year’s Davos — that the 1 percent would soon own more than the rest of us by 2016, actually came true in 2015, a year early,” Oxfam said.
The wealth of those 62 one-percenters has risen by more than a half-trillion dollars in the last five years, the report said. At the same time, the total owned by the poorest half has fallen by a trillion dollars.
In monetary terms, the club of 62 has seen its riches climb by $542 billion, or 44 percent, to $1.76 trillion since 2010. That’s as the less-fortunate half has seen its wealth slide by 41 percent.
The nonprofit also highlighted that nine out of 10 of this year’s World Economic Forum corporate partners have a presence in at least one tax haven. It estimates that tax dodging by multinational corporations comes at a cost to developing countries of least $100 billion every year. Corporate investment in tax havens almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2014, according to Oxfam.
Oxfam wants the world’s leaders to make a big initiative to tackle tax havens. Tax dodging by multinational corporations comes at a cost to developing countries of least $100 billion every year.
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