A new billionaire every 30 hours: Wealth increased for the richest during pandemic, report says

A new billionaire reached the 10-figure financial status an average of once every 30 hours during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a new analysis from Oxfam.

The report, released by the international organization focused on fighting poverty, said 573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic.

But the organization noted in a statement on Monday that this year it expects “263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours.”

The combined wealth of billionaires worldwide is equivalent to 13.9% of global GDP, according to the organization. More than 2,600 billionaires own approximately $12.7 trillion, and the analysis states that the world’s richest 20 billionaires are worth more than the entire GDP of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It also cites billionaires and corporations in the food, energy, pharmaceutical and technology sectors raking in some of the most significant wealth.

The organization used financial figures from Forbes’ billionaire list from March 2020 to March 2022 to analyze the wealth of the richest people around the world.

Tech: Elon Musk says there might be a 'slight cost' for commercial, government Twitter users

Oxfam: World's 10 richest men double wealth in the pandemic while 99% of incomes drop, group says

The release of the analysis coincided with the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Corporate executives, government officials and some of the wealthiest people in the world are attending the event in person this year after a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic.

“Billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. The pandemic and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have, simply put, been a bonanza for them. Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive,” Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, said in the Monday statement.

"Prices everywhere are rising – of flour, cooking oil, fuel, electricity,” the analysis reads.

Inflation in the U.S. has hit 40-year highs in recent months, with costs for gasoline, food, rent and more surging across the country.

While 2020 and 2021 represented a time of immense growth for the world's richest people, this year might not have been quite as fruitful.

The top 50 richest individuals have lost more than a half trillion dollars this year through Sunday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the Wall Street Journal reported. The losses come as the stock market has approached its first bear market since the start of the pandemic.

What is considered a bear market? The S&P 500 is poised to close in bear market territory

Stocks rose in morning trading on Wall Street after approximately 7 weeks of declines.

Contributing: Associated Press.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Not just Elon Musk: New billionaire reached status every 30 hours