‘Richest 1% grab two-thirds of new $42 trillion created since 2020’

The richest 1 per cent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 per cent of the world's population, reveals a new Oxfam report today.

During the past decade, the richest 1 per cent had captured around half of all new wealth, said the report titled "Survival of the Richest".

The report is published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Elites are gathering in the Swiss ski resort as extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years, said the Oxfam.

"While ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. Just two years in, this decade is shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires —a roaring '20s boom for the world's richest," said Executive Director of Oxfam International Gabriela Bucher.

"Taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today's overlapping crises. It's time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow 'trickling down' to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the super-rich have shown that a rising tide doesn't lift all ships —just the superyachts."

The report said billionaires have seen extraordinary increases in their wealth.

During the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis years since 2020, $26 trillion, which is 63 per cent of all new wealth, was captured by the richest 1 per cent, while $16 trillion or 37 per cent, went to the rest of the world put together.

A billionaire gained roughly $1.7 million for every $1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent, it said.

Billionaire fortunes have increased by $2.7 billion a day. This comes on top of a decade of historic gains — the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled over the last ten years. 

The Oxfam report said billionaire wealth surged in 2022 with rapidly rising food and energy profits.

The report shows that 95 food and energy corporations have more than doubled their profits in 2022. They made $306 billion in windfall profits, and paid out $257 billion -- 84 per cent of that to rich shareholders.

The Walton dynasty, which owns half of Walmart, received $8.5 billion over the last year.

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, owner of major energy corporations, has seen this wealth soar by $42 billion (46 per cent) in 2022 alone, the report said.