Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 573 new billionaires have appeared in the world, and their wealth has increased by a total of $ 3.78 trillion during this period, reaching $ 12.7 trillion, or 13.9 percent of world GDP.

Axar.az reports that these figures are included in the report of the charity organization Oxfam.

According to the report, every 30 hours a new billionaire appears in the world, and now their total number has reached 2668 people. At the same time, every 33 hours, one million people fall into the category of the poorest, earning less than $ 1.9 a day. The wealth of the 10 richest people in the world is equal to the wealth of 40 percent of the world's poorest people.

The authors of the report estimate that the assets of billionaires in the food and energy sectors are growing by $ 1 billion every two days, and in the last two years this figure has risen to $ 453 billion. The five largest energy companies (BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and Chevron) earn a net profit of $ 2,600 per second.