Billionaires see fortunes rise by 27percent during the pandemic
Billionaires have seen their fortunes hit record highs during the pandemic, with top executives from technology and industry earning the most.
The world’s richest saw their wealth climb 27.5% to $10.2trn (£7.9trn) from April to July this year, according to a report from Swiss bank UBS.
That was up from the previous peak of $8.9trn at the end of 2017 and largely due to rising global share prices. UBS said billionaires had done “extremely well” in the Covid crisis.
It also said the number of billionaires had hit a new high of 2,189, up from 2,158 in 2017.
It comes as a World Bank report on Wednesday showed extreme poverty is set to rise this year for the first time in more than two decades due to the pandemic.
Rising demand
Among the billionaires, the biggest winners this year have been industrialists, whose wealth rose a staggering 44% in the three months to July.
“Industrials benefited disproportionately as markets priced in a significant economic recovery [after lockdowns around the world],” UBS said.
Tech billionaires have also had a good pandemic, seeing their wealth soar 41%. UBS said this was “due to the corona-induced demand for their goods and services” and social distancing accelerating “digital businesses [and] compressing several years’ evolution into a few months”.
Healthcare billionaires also benefited as the crisis put drug makers and medical device companies in the spotlight.
The rise in fortunes reflects the generally strong performance of global stock markets since late March, despite most countries continuing to suffer sharp recessions.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and Tesla founder Elon Musk – both multi-billionaires – saw their wealth hit new highs this summer thanks to growth in the price of their companies’ stock.
Global change
In the last 11 years China’s billionaires have increased their wealth by the biggest percentage, climbing 1,146% between 2009 and 2020, according to UBS.
By comparison, over the same period the wealth of British billionaires has risen by just 168%.
But the biggest accumulation of wealth remains in the US where American billionaires have $3.5trn, compared to China’s $1.7trn.
The UK’s wealthy have just $205bn, compared to Germany’s $595bn and France’s $443bn.
Donations
UBS said many billionaires had donated some of their wealth to help with the fight against Covid-19.
“Our research has identified 209 billionaires who have publicly committed a total equivalent to $7.2bn from March to June 2020,” the report said.
“They have reacted quickly, in a way that’s akin to disaster relief, providing unrestricted grants to allow grantees to decide how best to use funds.”
But it revealed that UK billionaires donated less than those from other countries.
In the US, 98 billionaires donated $4.5bn, in China 12 billionaires gave $679m, and in Australia just two billionaires donated $324m. But in the UK, nine billionaires donated just $298m.
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Expose The Lies About COVID19
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Please DONATE TODAY To Help Our Non-Profit Mission To Defend The Scientific Method.
Trackback from your site.
Tom O
| #
I love the word “donated” as it is used here with regards these billionaires. I am sure it doesn’t have the same sense of the word that it has with me when I donate to various charities. For one, mine isn’t for tax relief, and second, mine truly has no strings attached. I would bet that nearly all of that donated money is expected to return great profit, and, it would appear, it did.
Reply
Ken Irwin
| #
It is not profit driven – its driven by low interest rates – they are no wealthier.
If you invest $1000 and it generates $50 a year (5%) in dividends when you can get 10% in a savings account – you’d be an idiot – you should rather put your “investment” in a savings account.
But if the saving account delivers only 1% then your $50 income makes your $1000 investment worth $5000 so its only the “paper value” of the stock – those billionaires by and large still own the exact same assets they did before.
Stock prices always rise on falling interest rates for this reason.
They did not profit from peoples misery which is implied.
This leftist hitting on rich people is nonsense – they are mostly the reason you have a job.
Who would you rather controlled those billions – those smart enough to have created and manage it or …… who then ?
You ? the government ? please ! Give me a break ! We would go broke in no time flat.
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries” – Winston Churchill.
Get over it !
Reply