News

Wealth of richest 1% equal to other 99%

21 January 2016

By James

Oxfam has released shocking figures estimating that the wealth of the richest 1% of people in the world is now equal to that of the other 99%.

The charity has used data from the financial services group Credit Suisse, which also states that the richest 62 people in the world have wealth roughly equal to that of the poorest 50% of the world’s population.

In Oxfam’s report, the charity criticises a world financial system which has created “an economy for the 1%”, and calls for governments to take action to narrow the gap, with particular emphasis on the gender pay gap, living wages and executive rewards. Another issue broached is the price of medicines, which is often kept artificially high by pharmaceutical companies.

Some free market financial think tanks have criticised the report, with the director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Mark Littlewood, calling the data “misleading”.

However, Credit Suisse says that there is a margin of error for its estimates, meaning that its statistics for the richest 10% and 1% “could err on the low side”.

Like this article? Please share!