62 richest own as much as the poorest half of the world: Oxfam
Oxfam had earlier predicted that the 1 per cent of the richest would soon own more than the rest of us by 2016, but the prediction came true in 2015, a year early. The non-profit called for urgent action to tackle the inequality crisis and reverse the dramatic fall in wealth of the poorest half of the world.
Pic: Pixabay
London, Jan 18 (Big Wire) Just 62 richest billionaires own as much as the poorest half of the world’s population, a report by non-profit Oxfam said.
“This number has fallen dramatically from 388 as recently as 2010 and 80 last year,” stated the report published ahead of annual gathering of the world’s financial and political elites in Davos.
Britain headquartered Oxfam is an international confederation of several organisations working in over 90 countries to find solutions to poverty.
The report has exposed the yawning gaps between the richest and the rest of the world’s population of 3.6 billion people even as global leaders debate about the need to combat inequality.
It shows that the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010.
Mark Goldring, Oxfam Great Britain Chief Executive, said: “It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world population owns no more than a small group of the global super-rich – so few, you could fit them all on a single coach.”
Goldring said the world leaders’ concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action to ensure that those at the bottom get their fair share of economic growth.
“In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake,” he said.
Oxfam had earlier predicted that the 1% of the richest would soon own more than the rest of us by 2016, but the prediction came true in 2015, a year early.
The non-profit called for urgent action to tackle the inequality crisis and reverse the dramatic fall in wealth of the poorest half of the world.
As a priority, it has called for an end to the era of tax havens which has seen increasing use of offshore centres by rich individuals and companies to avoid paying their fair share to society.
“This has denied governments valuable resources needed to tackle poverty and inequality,” it said.
“World leaders’ concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action to ensure that those at the bottom get their fair share of economic growth.
Big Wire
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