By: DailyForex.com
They say the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. But in 2015, it was the world’s richest that got poorer, losing a walloping $182 billion this past week alone.
The world’s 400 richest people reacted to weak manufacturing data from China and the retreat in commodities which sent global markets plunging. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index which measures the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes, falling commodities prices and signs of a slower-growing China scared investors around the world and are to be blame for the first annual decline for the daily wealth index since it debuted in 2012 and the biggest weekly drop since the expanded tracking list began in September 2014.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a group that includes Warren Buffett and Glencore Plc’s Ivan Glasenberg and the combined net worth of the index members fell by $76 billion on Friday alone, when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks ended its worst week since 2011.
The collapse in oil prices, which has seen its longest weekly losing streak since 1986 amid signs of an extended supply glut, contributed to $15.2 billion in losses for the world’s wealthiest energy billionaires. Continental Resources Inc. Chairman Harold Hamm saw $895 million, or 9 percent of his net worth, vanish in a week.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index…. commodities prices and signs of a slower-growing China scared investors around the world and are to be blame for the first annual decline for the daily wealth index since it debuted in 2012…
Change of Places
Of course, some billionaires lost bigger than others. U.S. investor Warren Buffett, the world’s third-richest person, lost $11.3 billion as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had its first negative annual return since 2011 and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the world’s richest person since May 2013, fell by $3 billion during the year.
Other rich people overtook steadfast winners of the past. Spain’s fashion retailer, Amancio Ortega, Europe’s richest person since June 2012, came within $10 billion of the top slot, leapfrogging Buffett and Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim as his riches rose $12.1 billion to $73.2 billion.
Slim was the biggest decliner on the index at the close of trading in New York on Dec. 28, with his America Movil SAB falling 25 percent in 2015. The Mexican tycoon was the world’s richest person in May 2013 but dropped to 5the place this year after losing almost $20 billion when regulators attempted to break apart the business that controls the majority of Mexico’s landlines and mobile phones.
Ortega’s 20 percent rise was still $19 billion shy against the year’s top-gainer, Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos. The New Mexico-born billionaire more than doubled his fortune to $59 billion as investors took profits from the world’s largest online retailer. Bezos added $31 billion in 2015, overturning the $7.4 billion decline he had amassed in 2014 and propelling him up 16 positions to No. 4 on the index.
Together, Ortega and Bezos collectively added $43 billion in 2015 while the fortunes of Gates, Buffet and Slim declined $34 billion combined.
Additional information in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index revealed that China’s 26 wealthiest people, thrashed by Hong Kong’s bear market and a weaker yen, lost $18.8 billion during the week while eleven billionaires added to their fortunes in spite of the market turmoil as the week’s biggest dollar gainer, Sun Pharmaceuticals’ Dilip Shanghvi came in as the world’s 39th-richest person. Shanghvi increased his net worth to $18.9 billion and became $467 million wealthier.