The combined wealth of the richest one per cent will overtake that of the other 99 per cent of people next year unless the current trend of rising inequality is checked, said a report issued by charity group Oxfam. The report was issued on Monday ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organisations working in approximately 94 countries worldwide to find solutions to poverty and what it considers as injustice around the world. It was founded in 1942 in Britain.
The international agency, whose executive director Winnie Byanyima will co-chair the Davos event, warned that the explosion in inequality is holding back the fight against global poverty at a time when one in nine people do not have enough to eat and more than a billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day. Top political and business leaders from around the world take part in the annual Davos summit.