With rising inequality as backdrop, Oxfam predicts first trillionaire could just be a decade away

On Monday, British non-profit Oxfam released a report that, among other things, highlighted that the world could see its first trillionaire within just 10 years. The prediction comes at a time when the five richest men in the world, namely Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg, have reportedly more than doubled their combined fortunes since 2020. At a rate of $14 million per hour, the five billionaires have seen their combined fortunes rise from $405 billion to $869 billion. This 114 per cent rise has come even as Oxfam reports that the total wealth of the poorest 4.77 billion people has declined by 0.2 per cent. 

The report, Inequality Inc, highlighted that while global poverty remains at pre-pandemic levels, billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020, with their wealth growth more than triple that of the rate of inflation. Circling back to the point about the world's first trillionaire, Oxfam notes the likelihood of the world crossing this threshold within a decade even as it will take almost 230 years to eliminate global poverty. Poverty, in this case, is defined by the World Bank's poverty line which is set at $2.15 a day for people living in low-income countries, $3.65 per day for lower-middle-income countries and $6.85 for upper-middle-income countries.