{"id":22564,"date":"2026-01-19T06:30:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T04:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/oxfam-report-warns-billionaire-wealth-has-surged-to-record-levels-in-2025-as-global-inequality-deepens\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:31","slug":"oxfam-report-warns-billionaire-wealth-has-surged-to-record-levels-in-2025-as-global-inequality-deepens","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/oxfam-report-warns-billionaire-wealth-has-surged-to-record-levels-in-2025-as-global-inequality-deepens\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxfam report warns billionaire wealth has surged to record levels in 2025 as global inequality deepens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This is according to a new Oxfam report released as the World Economic Forum opened in Davos. Overall, billionaire wealth has risen by 81% since 2020, even as one in four people worldwide struggles to eat regularly and nearly half the global population lives in poverty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The report, <\/span><strong><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfam.org\/en\/press-releases\/billionaire-wealth-jumps-three-times-faster-2025-highest-peak-ever\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power<\/span><\/a><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, examines how the <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">super\u2011rich<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> increasingly use their wealth to shape political and economic systems to their advantage, undermining democracy and <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">worsening<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> inequality.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Oxfam links the latest surge in billionaire wealth partly to policies pursued under the Trump administration in the United States (US), including tax cuts for the wealthy, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">reversed<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> efforts to regulate monopoly power and a boom in artificial <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">intelligence\u2011related<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> stocks <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">benefiting<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> the richest investors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The organisation warns that rising oligarchic influence is a global phenomenon, not one confined to the US. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Key findings show:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Billionaires\u2019 collective wealth increased by $2.5 trillion last year, almost equal to the total wealth of 4.1 billion people, the poorest half of humanity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The number of billionaires surpassed <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">3 000<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> for the first time.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The world\u2019s richest individual, Elon Musk, became the first person to exceed $500 billion in net worth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Billionaires are <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">4 000<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> times more likely than ordinary people to hold political office.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The$2.5 trillion rise in billionaire wealth could eliminate extreme poverty 26 times over.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar warned that the widening gap between the rich and the rest is creating a \u201chighly dangerous and unsustainable\u201d political deficit. Nearly half of <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">people<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> surveyed in 66 countries believe the wealthy often buy elections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Behar said governments were \u201cpandering to the elite\u201d while suppressing public anger over living costs and eroding basic freedoms. Poverty reduction has stalled, with extreme poverty rising again in parts of Africa. Aid cuts worldwide could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, Oxfam warns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Civil liberties continue to decline, with 2024 marking the nineteenth consecutive year of shrinking political freedoms. Authorities in many countries responded violently to anti\u2011government protests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Oxfam also raises concerns about the concentration of media ownership. Billionaires now control more than half the world\u2019s major media outlets and all main social media platforms, from Elon Musk\u2019s X\/Twitter to Jeff Bezos\u2019s Washington Post. In the United Kingdom, four wealthy families control three\u2011quarters of newspaper circulation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Women and racialised groups remain vastly underrepresented in global newsrooms, making up just 27% of top editors and 23% of staff respectively, fuelling marginalisation and enabling harmful narratives that scapegoat minorities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cOur societies feel increasingly toxic because the ultra\u2011rich hold outsized influence over politicians, media and economies,\u201d Behar said. He urged governments to refocus on people\u2019s needs, from healthcare to climate action and fair taxation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8211;Oxfam\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22565,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-22564","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Billionaire wealth grew by more than 16% in 2025, three times faster than the average for the past five years, reaching a record $18.3 trillion.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Billionaire wealth grew by more than 16% in 2025, three times faster than the average for the past five years, reaching a record $18.3 trillion.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25818,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22564\/revisions\/25818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}