The wealthy saw their fortunes soar during the pandemic but those gains are now being eviscerated by anxiety over inflation and rising rates.
The 500 wealthiest people in the world have lost a combined 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars this year, including 206 billion on Monday alone, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as global financial markets buckle under the weight of higher interest rates and inflation anxiety.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao lost the most amount of wealth at 85.6 billion prompted by crypto market losses. Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost 73.2 billion, while Amazon chief Jeff Bezos lost an amount of 65.3 billion, Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffet lost 64.4 billion and 56.8 billion respectively.
It is a stark contrast to last year, when soaring markets boosted the world’s population of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) by about 8 percent, including 13 percent in North America, according to a Capgemini World Wealth report released on Tuesday.
The data shows that the ranks of the wealthy in the Asia-Pacific increased by only 4.2 percent — trailing Europe and falling further behind North America after dominating the growth of rich people for the past decade.
However, the data also suggests the COVID-19 pandemic and monetary response benefited the economically elite and where they predominantly reside.A
Also, even among the world’s high-net-worth individuals, the very rich saw the most benefits. People with investable assets of 30 million U.S. dollars or more saw their wealth expand 9.6 percent compared with 2020, the fastest pace among the cohorts studied by the report. Those with $1-million to $5-million – defined as “millionaires next door’’ – had the slowest wealth growth at 7.8 percent.
The report also highlighted how women across all brackets are set to inherit 70% of global fortunes over the next two generations. The massive wealth created from sky-high valuations of tech companies and start-ups also gave rise to more young and rich individuals, including those in the crypto space.
