The number of Italian billionaire's on Forbes list of the richest people on the planet has risen by 13 in the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic just as over one million Italians have plunged into poverty, Oxfam said Tuesday.
"Between March 2020 and November 2021, the number of Italian billionaires on the Forbes List rose by 13 units and the aggregate value of the super-rich grew by 56%, touching 185 billion euros at the end of last November," said the NGO.
The Italian rich list has been dominated for year by the likes of Leonardo del Vecchio (Luxottica), Giovanni Ferrero (Nutella), Stefano Pessina (Walgreens Boots), and media mogul and three-time former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Among the new entries are Agnelli heir John Elkann, with two billion dollars of personal wealth; glass king Sergio Stavanato (1.9 billion); supermarket magnates Giuliano and Marina Caprotti (1.7 billion each); steel moguls Antonio and Emma Marcegaglia (1.4 billion each); and, all above one billion: Technogym king Nerio Alessandri, MAPEI mogul Simona Giorgetta, toy king Enrico Preziosi, and chemicals kingpins Marco and Veronica Squinzi, also of MAPEI.
The world's super-rich like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk got richer two times over during the pandemic, Oxfam said on the basis of the Forbes List, while 163 million people worldwide fell into poverty.
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