DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 20, (AP): Billionaires' wealth grew 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 prepared for an annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland. Oxfam International, in its latest assessment of global inequality timed to the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting, also predicts at least five trillionaires will crop up over the next decade.

A year ago, the group forecast that only one trillionaire would appear during that time. OxFam's research adds weight to a warning by outgoing President Joe Biden last week of a "dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people.” The group's sharp-edged report, titled "Takers Not Makers,” also says the number of people in poverty has barely budged since 1990.

The World Economic Forum expects to host some 3,000 attendees, 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 was set to take the oath of office on Monday, is expected to take part in the forum's event by video on Thursday. He has long championed wealth accumulation - including his own - and counts multibillionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser.

"What you’re seeing at the moment is a billionaire president taking oaths today, backed by the richest man. So this is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the global oligarchies,” Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said in an interview, referring to Trump and Musk. "It’s not about one specific individual.

It’s the economic system that we have created where the billionaires are now pretty much being able to shape economic policies, social policies, which eventually gives them more and more profit,” he added. Like Biden’s call for making billionaires "begin to pay their fair share” through the U.S. tax code, Oxfam - a 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 the break-up of monopolies, capping CEO pay, and regulation of corporations to ensure they pay "living wages” to workers. Many investors racked up strong gains in 2024, with strong performances for top tech companies and stock-market indexes like the S&P 500, as well as the price of gold and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.