JOHANNESBURG: Billionaires in the world’s leading economies made US$2.2 trillion last year, which would have been enough to lift all the world’s poor out of poverty, global campaign group Oxfam said Thursday.
The British-based charity urged this weekend’s summit of the powerful G20 group of major economies to back initiatives by the host, South Africa, to address massive global wealth inequality and the debt undermining developing countries.
Billionaires in the 19 countries that are part of the grouping made US$2.2 trillion last year as their combined wealth grew to US$15.6 trillion, it said, basing its figures on the Forbes list.