inequality

New Oxfam analysis ahead of the world’s largest development financing talks in a decade, in Seville, Spain.

The world’s richest 1% increased their wealth by more than $33.9 trillion in real terms since 2015, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the world’s largest development financing talks in a decade, in Seville, Spain. This is more than enough to eliminate annual poverty 22 times over at the World Bank’s highest poverty line of $8.30 a day. But about 60% of low-income countries remain in or at risk of debt distress.

Patients living in poverty in the Global South are being bankrupted by private healthcare corporations backed by multi-million-dollar investments from development finance institutions (DFIs) run by the UK, French, German and other rich country governments. DFIs like the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) invest public funds via the private sector to help foster economic development in the Global South and tackle poverty. However, Oxfam published two investigations on DFI funding into private hospital chains and other for-profit healthcare corporations operating in low- and middle-income countries and found cases of them.   

Across Europe and the world, people are facing rising energy bills and inflation driven by the Ukraine war and the aftermath of the pandemic. Meanwhile, big business in every sector, not just energy, are raking in extremely high and excessive profits.

The 1,000 richest people on the planet recouped their COVID-19 losses within just nine months, but it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic, reveals a new Oxfam report today. "The Inequality Virus" is being published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Davos Agenda’.

We need to transform our economies to deliver universal health, education and other public services. To make this possible, the richest people and corporations should pay their fair share of tax. This will drive a dramatic reduction in the gap between rich and poor and between women and men.

As political leaders gather for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, millionaires from around the world say elected representatives must tackle the existential global crisis posed by extreme wealth, by taxing the super-rich. 

Billionaire fortunes have grown at a rate three times faster than the previous five years since the election of Donald Trump in November 2024. While US billionaires have seen the sharpest growth in their fortunes, billionaires in the rest of the world have also seen double digit increases. 

In reaction to the G20 communique, Oxfam International Head of Inequality Policy and Advocacy, Max Lawson said: “This is the first ever meeting of world leaders, in history, where the inequality emergency was put at the centre of the agenda. This is testament to South Africa’s leadership – one that put the billions before the billionaires.”

The amount of wealth that the G20’s own billionaires made just last year – $2.2 trillion – would have been more than enough to lift 3.8 billion people out of poverty, says Oxfam.