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Oxfam attacks billionaire ‘bonanza’ pandemic as millions face poverty

Olga Shumytskaya | Moment | beautiful pictures

A new billionaire emerges every 30 hours during the Covid-19 pandemic, and nearly a million people could fall into it extreme poverty at the same rate by 2022. Those are stark statistics released recently by Oxfam.

There are 573 more billionaires in the world in March 2022 than there were in 2020, when the pandemic broke out, the global charity said in a summary published on Monday, the first day of the Conference. World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland. That equates to a new billionaire every 30 hours, says Oxfam.

Furthermore, an estimated 263 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2022 because of the pandemic, growing global inequality and rising food prices due to the war in Ukraine. Oxfam says this equates to almost one million people every 33 hours.

The organization points out that billionaires have a combined net worth of $12.7 trillion as of March. In 2021, the wealth of billionaires accounts for nearly 14% of global gross domestic product.

Gabriela Bucher, chief executive officer of Oxfam International, says that billionaires come to the summit in Davos to “celebrate the incredible increase in their fortunes.”

“The pandemic and now the sharp rise in food and energy prices are, simply put, a bargain for them,” she said.

Bucher added: “Meanwhile, decades of progress in extreme poverty are now being reversed and millions of people are facing an untenable increase in the cost of sustaining their lives. ,” added Bucher.

Pandemic wind

Tracking wealth spikes in specific business sectors, Oxfam says the fortunes of food and energy billionaires have grown by $453 billion over the past two years, or $1 billion every two day.

For example, food giant Cargill is believed to be one of four companies that control more than 70 percent of the global agricultural market, Oxfam said. The company, owned by the Cargill family, generated nearly $5 billion in net income last year — the biggest profit in its history. There are now 12 billionaires in the Cargill family alone, up from eight pre-pandemic. Cargill declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.

Meanwhile, Oxfam said the pandemic has created 40 new billionaires in the pharmaceutical sector. Billionaires are the beneficiaries of their company’s monopoly on vaccines, treatments, testing and personal protective equipment.

To prevent wealth inequality from becoming even worse, and to support those with rising food and energy costs, Oxfam recommends that governments impose a one-time solidarity tax on hurricanes pandemic of billionaires.

End the situation of ‘crisis profiteering’?

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