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Growth is necessary but not sufficient to lift poor people out of poverty, international agency Oxfam said today as it published a briefing paper calling on the G20 to agree an historic new Seoul development consensus to help the world’s poorest.

A staggering new poll has revealed that support for higher taxes on wealth is popular with dollar millionaires from across G20 countries. It comes as 260 millionaires and billionaires have signed a new letter demanding world leaders increase their taxes, to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The polling is part of the “Proud to Pay More” report, published alongside the letter, which profiles some of the world’s wealthiest people on why they support higher taxes on themselves.

The combined wealth of the richest 1 percent will overtake that of the other 99 percent of people next year unless the current trend of rising inequality is checked, Oxfam warned today ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

Following Oxfam’s January report revealing that just 85 people owned the same wealth as the bottom half the world’s population, Forbes has updated its “billionaires' list”, showing that extreme inequality has worsened– just 67 people at the top now own half the wealth.

The COVID-19 crisis cost women around the world at least $800 billion in lost income in 2020, equivalent to more than the combined GDP of 98 countries, said Oxfam today.  

Pressure is piling on the G20 to lead a global push to increase taxes on the richest citizens back to past levels that most people believe were fairer and more useful for society. 

EU governments are losing out on a staggering 286.5 billion euros in revenue annually, equivalent to 33 million euros per hour, due to their failure to fairly tax Europe’s wealthiest. This amount, equivalent to Finland’s GDP, represents what a European wealth tax of up to 5 percent could raise every year, according to Oxfam’s analysis. 

Runaway inequality has created a world where 62 people own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population – a figure that has fallen from 388 just five years ago, according to an Oxfam report published today ahead of the annual gathering of the world’s financial and political elites in Davos.

 Commenting on the arrival of President Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos to promote his ‘…

At the close of the 2015 Spring meetings, Oxfam reacts to the summary of the event.