World’s 26 richest people own same as poorest half of humanity: Oxfam

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Jan 22, 2019 06:00 am

DAVOS: The world's 26 richest people own the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity, Oxfam said yesterday, urging governments to hike taxes on the wealthy.

A new report from the charity, published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, also found that billionaires around the world saw their combined fortunes grow by US$2.5 billion (S$3.4 billion) each day in 2018.

The world's richest man, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, saw his fortune increase to US$112 billion last year, Oxfam said, pointing out that just 1 per cent of his wealth was the equivalent to the entire health budget of Ethiopia, a country of 105 million people.

The 3.8 billion people at the bottom of the scale meanwhile saw their wealth decline by 11 per cent last year, Oxfam said, stressing that the growing gap between rich and poor was undermining the fight against poverty, damaging economies and fuelling public anger.

It warned that governments were exacerbating inequality by underfunding public services like healthcare and education as they under-tax the wealthy.

Oxfam found that asking the richest to pay just 0.5 per cent extra tax on their wealth "could raise more money than it would cost to educate all 262 million children out of school and provide healthcare that would save the lives of 3.3 million people". - AFP