| Forbes’ world’s richest people list: Bill Gates knocked off the top by Carlos Slim |
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11/03/2010 16:18 (703 Day 09:18 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- Forbes, the US-based business magazine, has released its annual list of the world's richest people, and Bill Gates has been knocked off the top by Carlos Slim. It was the first time a non-American has held the tile for 16 years.
According to AL Jazeera, this year the title of "world's richest" went to Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms tycoon with a net worth of $53.5bn.
The annual Richest People list reflects the growing power of emerging economies, with Asia supplying most of the 97 billionaires making their debut on the list in 2010, minting 62 new contenders, Financial Times reports. Forbes said Asia trailed the number of European billionaires by only 14.
Slim, who came to the rescue of the New York Times in 2009 with a loan and investment, added $18.5bn to his net worth, according to the same source. He beat Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and last year’s number one, and Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, for the top spot. Gates and Buffett’s net worths were $53bn and $47bn respectively.
The full list showed Taiwan tripling its number of billionaires to 18, Turkey more than doubling to 28, and Brazil increasing by 50 percent to 18, AP reports. Russia also rebounded, almost doubling its number of billionaires to 62 after stock markets there recovered from severe setbacks. Still, it is hardly time to mark the passing of U.S. dominance: The number American billionaires rose by more than 40 to 403. That is more than six times second-place China with 64 billionaires.
That the single richest man on the list should come from Mexico has drawn frequent criticism given the country's ongoing battles against poverty, according to the same source. "This is shameful," said Ernesto Villanueva, 45, of Mexico City. "This is part of what is wrong with the Mexican political system and the corruption in the circles of power, that allow there to be a few rich people and millions of poor."
The list includes 97 fresh billionaires, 62 of them coming out of Asia, a region that saw booming stock markets and several large public offerings in the past year, AL Jazeera reports. Europe is still the number two super-wealthy region, with 248 billionaires. The richest European is France's Bernard Arnault, 61, whose LVMH sells Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon, and other luxury goods, with his net worth at $27.5bn.
Just behind Arnault is Spain's Amancio Ortega, owner of the Zara clothing chain, with $25bn, according to the same source. Asia trails Europe by only 14 billionaires and the region's net worth of $729bn is double what it was a year ago. The region's richest man, oil-and-gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani, 52, climbed to four from seven on the list with a net worth of $29bn, up $9.5bn.
Financial Times reports that Forbes said the net worth figures were based on a broad range of assets including real estate, art, jewellery collections, cash, investable assets and debt.
World's Richest People 2010 List: Top 25
1. Carlos Slim Helu & family
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