Oxfam denounces that 263 million more people will live in extreme poverty by the end of this year
Since the Ovid-19 pandemic broke out, 573 new billionaires have been added, which is a new billionaire every 30 hours. On the contrary, by the end of this year there will be 263 million more people immersed in extreme poverty: a million more people every 33 hours, according to Oxfam Intermón’s complaint in a new report published this Monday on the occasion of the meeting of the World Economic Forum.
The number of Spanish billionaires on the Forbes list has also increased since the start of the pandemic: there are four new billionaires, while the wealth of those who were already billionaires before the pandemic has grown by 6.8 million euros a year.
“For billionaires, the pandemic, as well as the conflict in Ukraine and the spectacular rise in food and energy prices, envision a period of prosperity. And this reality is in stark contrast to a marked decline in the performance of recent decades in the fight against extreme poverty at the global level,” said Iñigo Macías, head of research at Oxfam Intermón.
The total wealth currently amassed by these billionaires around the world already equals 13.9% of global GDP, meaning it has tripled since 2000 when it stood at 4.4%.
“The fortunes of these billionaires have not grown so rapidly in such a short period of time because they are now either working harder or more productively. They control and invest in companies that have benefited from their growing market power and deregulation, in many cases taking over the rights of working people, while some hide their money in tax havens, all with the complicity of the governments,” Macías said.
From Sri Lanka to Sudan to Peru, rising food and energy prices are causing strong social and political tensions. This NGO indicates that nearly 60% of low-income countries are on the brink of bankruptcy and unable to pay their national debt. Compared to the most advanced economies, the population of poor countries spends more than double their income on buying food. If inflation rises everywhere, the effect will be especially devastating for low-paid workers, who have also become much more exposed and vulnerable to the pandemic, and even more so for women, people of color and those living in exclusion.
Oxfam Intermón’s new study also finds that companies in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors are making unprecedented profits globally, despite workers’ wages barely rising and the biggest price increases in decades.
Notably, five of the major energy companies (BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and Chevron) made $2,600 per second in profit last year. At the same time, the wealth of billionaires in the food and energy sector has increased by $453 billion in the past two years, or $1 billion every two days. In the same period, 62 new billionaires have been added to the food sector.
On the other hand, there are 40 new billionaires in the pharmaceutical sector since the start of the pandemic. Pharmaceutical companies like Moderna and Pfizer are making $1,000 in profits every second thanks solely to their monopoly on the Covid-19 vaccine, despite receiving billions of dollars in government investment to develop it, Oxfam denounces.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
