economic inequality

Over 200 civil society organisations and individuals have sent a letter urging European leaders to commit to a transformative and ambitious agenda of financial architecture reform at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.

Global dividend payments to shareholders grew on average 14 times faster than worker pay in 31 countries, which together account for 81 percent of global GDP, between 2020 and 2023, reveals Oxfam’s new analysis ahead of International Workers’ Day (May 1). 

EU governments are losing out on a staggering 286.5 billion euros in revenue annually, equivalent to 33 million euros per hour, due to their failure to fairly tax Europe’s wealthiest. This amount, equivalent to Finland’s GDP, represents what a European wealth tax of up to 5 percent could raise every year, according to Oxfam’s analysis. 

Less than eight cents in every dollar raised in tax revenue in G20 countries now comes from taxes on wealth, reveals new analysis by Oxfam today ahead of the first meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

The world’s ten richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion —at a rate of $15,000 per second or $1.3 billion a day— during the first two years of a pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall and over 160 million more people forced into poverty. 

In response to the UN recently launched Global Humanitarian Overview, estimating some 235 million people across the globe will be in need of life-saving support in 2021, Oxfam and 6 aid agencies said it is vital that they have unhindered access to those most in need and humanitarian appeals are fully funded. 

The richest one percent of the world’s population are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the 3.1 billion people who made up the poorest half of humanity during a critical 25-year period of unprecedented emissions growth.

Thirty-two of the world’s largest companies stand to see their profits jump by $109 billion more in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare an economic model that delivers profits for the wealthiest on the back of the poorest, according to a new Oxfam report today.

The coronavirus pandemic is a crisis for everyone. All around us people are affected — our loved ones, our neighbours, our colleagues, our communities. 

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic could push half a billion more people into poverty unless urgent action is taken to bail out developing countries, said Oxfam today.