The coronavirus pandemic has not affected the ultra-rich around the world, quite the contrary, making them even more affluent, according to the “Billionaires Report” study carried out by the consulting firm PwC and the Swiss bank UBS. They have never been so fortunate.
By the end of July, the total assets of the world's more than 2,000 billionaires had reached a record high of around $ 10.2 trillion (about 8.694 billion euros), according to the analysis released on Wednesday, an increase of 14, 6% from the previous peak of $ 8.9 trillion reached at the end of 2017.
The increase in the wealth of the super-rich is in part due to the recovery in stock markets, while investments in fast-growing areas such as technology and healthcare in particular have proven to be drivers of wealth. , according to the study.
Billionaires who have invested in the technology sector have seen their income increase by 42.5% since the end of 2017 to 1,800 billion dollars, driven by the surge in shares in the sector.
Those who are active in the health field have seen their fortunes jump by 50.3% to 658.6 billion, a record which is explained by the discovery of new treatments, innovations in diagnostics and more recently research on Covid-19.
These increases are spectacular compared to the average growth of billionaires around the world which reached "only" 19.1% in 2018, 2019 and the first seven months of 2020.
Most of the billionaires are in Asia. Those living in the United States have the largest assets. Among them are known names like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, and Tesla and Space X founder and CEO Elon Musk. For UBS, the latter is one of the winners of recent years, "the innovators" who have succeeded in bringing disruptions to the economy. Rather, those who find themselves "on the wrong side of economic, technological, societal and environmental trends become less wealthy," according to the report.
There are currently 2,189 men and women with fortunes of over $ 1 billion. The number of billionaires was still 2,158 in 2017.
Cash, real estate and luxury goods as well as stocks and corporate assets were taken into account in the valuation of their wealth, while liabilities were deducted.
At the same time, billionaires have "become more active in the world of philanthropy, corporate responsibility and sustainable investing," writes UBS.
The United States is thus the champions of donations to fight against the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, with 98 billionaires having donated nearly 4.6 billion dollars.
209 ultra-rich have publicly agreed to give 7.2 billion between March and June 2020, this shows "that billionaires give more than at any other time in history", estimates the Swiss bank. This amount could also be even higher because many billionaires want to be discreet about their donations to charities.
For this 7th report, UBS and PwC analyzed data from 2,189 billionaires in 43 countries, which together represent 98% of the study population, and interviewed 60 of them.
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