The report, released by the Nairobi-based charity as top policy makers and business leaders arrive in the Swiss city of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), found the number of billionaires has risen from 573 to just under 2,700 from 2020.
Their combined wealth has increased by nearly $3.8 trillion to $12.7 trillion, according to the charity that analyzed the Forbes data. Those in the food and energy sector have benefited from a windfall of income thanks to soaring commodity prices.
Meanwhile, the combination of COVID-19, rising inequality and rising food prices could push up to 263 million people into extreme poverty in 2022, Oxfam said, adding that this undoing decades of progress.
“Millions of people around the world are facing a cost of living crisis due to the lingering effects of the pandemic and the rapidly rising costs of essentials, including food and energy,” the authors said. of the report.
“Inequality, already extreme before COVID-19, has reached new levels.”
Food prices, which had already increased during the pandemic due to COVID-19-related disruptions and weather problems, surged again when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted supplies. in cereals and oils.
The World Bank defines extremely poor people as those who live on less than $1.90 a day.
“The most urgent and structural action that governments must take now is to implement highly progressive fiscal measures which must in turn be used to invest in powerful and proven measures that reduce inequality, such as protection universal social and universal health care,” the report said.
The Geneva-based WEF says the meeting, which is taking place for the first time in more than two years due to COVID-19, will bring together more than 2,000 leaders and experts from around the world, slightly fewer than some previous meetings. .