"Top 10 Wealthiest Individuals Worldwide Doubled Their Assets During the Pandemic"

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. (Photo by BBC)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the assets of the world's top 10 billionaires more than doubled, while the income of 99% of the global population decreased, deepening the wealth gap, according to an analysis.

On the 16th (local time), according to the British BBC, the international relief organization Oxfam revealed this in its report titled "Inequality That Kills," released to coincide with the World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos Agenda week.

Based on the annual "Global Wealth" report published by Credit Suisse, the report states that since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, over 160 million people have fallen into poverty due to income reductions caused by school closures, layoffs due to illness, and economic uncertainty affecting 99% of the world's population.

In contrast, the total assets of the world's top 10 billionaires increased from $700 billion (approximately 833 trillion KRW) to $1.5 trillion, more than doubling. This equates to assets increasing by $15,000 every second.

Among the top 10 billionaires whose assets more than doubled, nine are Americans, including Tesla founder Elon Musk ($264 billion) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($187 billion).

Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said, "Even if the world's top 10 richest men lost 99.999% of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be wealthier than 99% of the world's population," adding, "They now own six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people combined."

Oxfam urged all governments to take immediate action to address this violent situation where billionaires thrive amid millions dying and billions living in poverty due to such inequality.

Oxfam particularly emphasized that these findings should serve as a basis for imposing a wealth tax on billionaires, and that the revenue collected from such a tax should be invested in children's health and education.

(Photo by BBC)

The prolonged pandemic has also worsened inequalities between countries, races, and genders. According to WEF's "Global Gender Gap Report 2021," the time required to achieve gender equality has increased again from 99 years to 135 years due to the pandemic.

Global women's income decreased by a total of $800 billion in 2020, and the number of employed women dropped by 13 million compared to 2019.

As debt levels surged in developing countries that failed to secure vaccines and treatments, inequality between countries is expected to increase for the first time in a generation. People in low- and middle-income countries were found to be about twice as likely to die from COVID-19 compared to those in wealthy countries.

Additionally, the extremely poor and people of color were left vulnerable to the risk of COVID-19 death, with the poorest individuals in some countries facing nearly four times higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than the wealthiest.