The report, prepared by the British aid organization Oxfam, showed striking results with respect to income inequality in the world.

Billionaire fortunes increased by 12 percent last year – or $2.5 billion a day - while the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth decline by 11 percent, reveals a new report from Oxfam on Monday. 

Public Good or Private Wealth shows the growing gap between rich and poor is undermining the fight against poverty, damaging our economies and fuelling public anger across the globe. 

It reveals how governments are exacerbating inequality by underfunding public services, such as healthcare and education, on the one hand, while under-taxing corporations and the wealthy, and failing to clamp down on tax dodging, on the other. It also finds that women and girls are hardest hit by rising economic inequality.

"The size of your bank account should not dictate how many years your children spend in school, or how long you live – yet this is the reality in too many countries across the globe," said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International.

"While corporations and the super-rich enjoy low tax bills, millions of girls are denied a decent education and women are dying for lack of maternity care," she added.

The report reveals that the number of billionaires has almost doubled since the financial crisis, with a new billionaire created every two days between 2017 and 2018, yet wealthy individuals and corporations are paying lower rates of tax than they have in decades.

In 2018, the rich increased its fortune by 900 billion dollars.

Releasing its reports on inequality each year before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Oxfam says that since 2015, the wealth of the richest 1 percent has been higher than the rest of the world's 99 percent.

ILKHA