The world’s richest people became a little ‘poorer’ last year, according to a report by UBS and PwC, as geopolitical turmoil and volatile equity markets reduced the wealth of billionaires for the first time in a decade.

Billionaires’ wealth fell by 388 billion dollars globally to 8.539 trillion dollars, the UBS and PwC Billionaires Report found, with a particularly sharp decline in Greater China – the second-biggest home for billionaires after the United States – and the Asia-Pacific region more broadly.

Private banks including the world’s largest wealth manager UBS have felt the effects of U.S.-China trade tensions and global political uncertainties, as clients last year shied away from trading and taking on debt in favor of hoarding more cash.

“Billionaire wealth dipped in 2018 for the first time since 2008 because of geopolitics,” UBS’s head of ultra-high net worth clients, Josef Stadler, said in the report published on Friday.

The net worth of China’s richest dropped 12.8 per cent in dollar terms on the back of tumbling stock markets and a weaker local currency and as growth in the world’s second-largest economy slowed to its lowest level in nearly three decades in 2018, the report found, knocking dozens off the billionaires list.

In spite of the drop, China continues to produce a new billionaire every 2-2.5 days, Stadler said.

Worldwide, the number of billionaires fell everywhere except in the Americas, where tech entrepreneurs continued to buoy the ranks of the United States’ wealthiest.

“This report shows the resilience of the U.S. economy,” where there were 749 billionaires at the end of 2018, said John Matthews, head of private wealth management and ultra-high net worth business for UBS in the United States.

While a stock market recovery from a steep drop in late 2018 has helped wealth managers increase their assets, the world’s richest families remain concerned about global affairs from trade tensions and Brexit to populism and climate change and are continuing to keep more of their money in cash.

“It is likely that billionaire wealth will go up again this year,” said Simon Smiles, UBS’s chief investment officer for ultra-wealthy clients, adding it would likely be a more muted increase than the wider financial market rally might suggest.

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/11/08/business/08reuters-wealth-billionaires.html

Wow Sad

Lalasticlala

Everything in life is subject to change.

Be it positive or negative.

Seriously

Can I blame this on buhari.

Just asking o

The question is are the poor becoming richer or poorer?

Where the billionaire money dey go if the poor remain poor?

Let's blame Buhari for this

Wow, so the thing affect my fellow billionaires?


Anyway, we will bounce back by God's Grace

Me ayam not understanding dis ooooo. God count me among the billionaires soon, Amen

Oboy!
Imagine how many people that cash can take out of poverty

I was affected too but I didn't lose much

Abeg joor...which kind news b D's....

Please God I want to be as poor as the present poverty of this world billionaire

Shey u de whine me ni?

Let the wealths dha circulate

pickatyou:
Can I blame this on buhari.

Just asking o

Yeah, feel free... e no comot anything for him body, he's not a fellow billionaire

Op, u dnt knw d meaning of poor or poorer. Mtcheew, i wish i can be poor as they are

But how come it didn't affect my money? Or am I not a billionaire ?

Burgerlomo:

Pheewewewe

It's not easy for we billionaires for some time

Audio money

Please Edit the topic jor, which one is "world Billionaires get poorer" less Richer is better.
You know wetin poverty be!!!

Hope my 2k is among the loss

Poor man in trouble.

I keep saying it: most of the billionaires are billonaires on paper (shareholding). As stock market fluctuates, so does their "wealth".

I keep insisting on converting to cash and investing in less volatile stuffs like CDs, government bonds, T-bills.

tolu4you:
Me ayam not understanding dis ooooo. God count me among them soon, Amen

You have to produce something.

Hope you are doing that already?

tolu4you:
Me ayam not understanding dis ooooo. God count me among them soon, Amen

among billionaires or those that will get poorer?