PARIS, Jan 17, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The world's 10 wealthiest men doubled

their fortunes during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic as
poverty and inequality soared, a report said on Monday.

   Oxfam said the men's wealth jumped from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion, at
an average rate of $1.3 billion per day, in a briefing published before a
virtual mini-summit of world leaders being held under the auspices of the
World Economic Forum.

   A confederation of charities that focus on alleviating global poverty,
Oxfam said the billionaires' wealth rose more during the pandemic more than
it did the previous 14 years, when the world economy was suffering the worst
recession since the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

   It called this inequality "economic violence" and said inequality is
contributing to the death of 21,000 people every day due to a lack of access
to healthcare, gender-based violence, hunger and climate change.

   The pandemic has plunged 160 million people into poverty, the charity
added, with non-white ethnic minorities and women bearing the brunt of the
impact as inequality soared.

   The report follows a December 2021 study by the group which found that the
share of global wealth of the world's richest people soared at a record pace
during the pandemic.

   Oxfam urged tax reforms to fund worldwide vaccine production as well as
healthcare, climate adaptation and gender-based violence reduction to help
save lives.

   The group said it based its wealth calculations on the most up-to-date and
comprehensive data sources available, and used the 2021 Billionaires List
compiled by the US business magazine Forbes.

   Forbes listed the world's 10 richest men as: Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon
Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin,
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates and Steve
Ballmer, former Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, US investor Warren Buffet and the
head of the French luxury group LVMH, Bernard Arnault.