Davos, Switzerland — BillionairesWealth will grow three times faster in 2024 than the year before, a top anti-poverty group reported on Monday as some of the world’s political and financial elite prepare for their annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Oxfam Internationalin its latest assessment of global inequality timed to open World Economic Forum meeting, also predicts that at least five trillionaires will emerge over the next decade. A year ago, the group predicted that only one trillionaire would emerge during that time.

OxFam’s research weighs a warning from outgoing President Biden last week about the “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-rich people”. The sharp-edged group’s report, titled “Takers Not Makers,” also said the number of people in poverty had barely budged since 1990.

The World Economic Forum is expected to host around 3,000 participants, including business executives, academics, government officials and civic group leaders at its annual meeting in the Alpine village of Davos.

President-elect Donald Trump, who visited Davos twice during his first term and should have take the oath on Mondayhe is expected to participate in a forum event via video on Thursday. He has long advocated accumulating wealth – including his own – and counts multi-billionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser.

“What you’re seeing right now is a billionaire president being sworn in today, backed by the richest man. So this is quite a jewel in the crown of the global oligarchies,” said Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, in an interview, referring to Trump and Musk. .

“It’s not about one particular individual. It’s an economic system we’ve created where billionaires can now mostly shape economic policies, social policies, which ultimately gives them more and more profits,” he added.

Like Biden’s call for billionaires to “start paying fairly” through the US tax code, Oxfam – the global advocacy group – called on governments to tax the richest to reduce inequality and extreme wealth, and to “dismantle the new aristocracy”.

The group called for steps like breaking up monopolies, capping CEO pay and regulating corporations to ensure they pay workers “living wages.”

Many investors saw strong gains in 2024, with strong results from top tech companies and stock indexes like the S&P 500, as well as gold prices and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Oxfam said the wealth of billionaires grew by $2 trillion last year, or roughly $5.7 billion a day, three times faster than in 2023. The number of billionaires rose by 204 to 2,769, with the 10 richest people seeing their fortunes rise for almost 100 million dollars a day on average, it was said.

Citing World Bank data, the group pointed to persistent poverty, saying the number of people living on less than $6.85 a day has “barely changed” since 1990. Oxfam used Forbes’ “Real-Time Billionaires List” from the end of November for data on the ultra-rich.

In contrast, at least four new billionaires were “minted” every week in 2024, with three-fifths of billionaire wealth coming from inheritance, monopolies or “crony connections”, it said.

On average, Oxfam said, low- and middle-income countries spend almost half of their national budgets on debt service. It also noted that life expectancy in Africa is just under 64 years, compared to over 79 years in Europe.

Despite the widening gap between the über-rich and the poor, the annual conference in Davos, which officially begins on Tuesday, is likely to focus again this year on making money and making deals, with strong leaders emerging in some Western countries and progressive goals such as diversity and climate change in the business world.

The the continued rise of artificial intelligence as a business tool to increase efficiency will again be a central theme at Davos, despite concerns in many sectors that artificial intelligence could destroy many white-collar jobs and displace workers in a range of industries.

Trump’s return for a second term is likely to be on the lips of many in Davos, as are protracted conflicts, including wars in Ukraine and Sudan, along with hopes for a continuation ceasefire that started on Sunday between Hamas and Israel, pausing their devastating 15-month war in Gaza.

The organizers of the Forum last week published a survey of 900 experts for the “Global Risks Report”, which showed that conflicts between countries are the biggest concern, followed by extreme weather conditions, economic confrontation, disinformation and misinformation and “social polarization” – a tendency to the gap between the rich and the poor.

As in previous years, protesters calling for greater economic equality, taxation of the rich and other demands took to the streets.

Some have blocked roads to Davos, snarling traffic in places and delaying travel for some participants in the event, which runs until Friday.