Billionaires’ collective wealth jumped by over 16 percent in 2025, three times faster than the past five-year average, to $18.3 trillion, a report by charity Oxfam indicates.
It is the highest level in history, according to the new report, which has been released ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The report, titled ‘Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power’, notes that the rise in billionaire wealth comes at a time one in four people do not have enough food to eat and nearly half of the world’s population still lives in poverty.
It also analyses how the super-rich are securing political power to shape the rules of “our economies and societies” for their own gain and to the detriment of the rights and freedoms of people around the world.
“The surge in billionaire wealth coincides with the US [United States] Donald Trump administration whose presidency has sent a clear warning sign to the rest of the world about the power of the ultra-rich,” the report says.
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It then warns that the rising oligarchy is undermining societies worldwide, saying the collective surge in billionaires’ wealth, of $2.5 trillion last year alone, would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over.
In Malawi, billionaire wealth grew by more than 20 percent between 2024 and 2025, with the richest business leader’s fortune rising to nearly $910 million, according to the report.
This comes at a time over half of Malawi’s population lives below the poverty line.
“The widening gap between the rich and the rest is, at the same time, creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable.” The report quotes Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar as saying.
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Behar says, as a result, governments are making wrong choices of defending the wealthy while repressing people’s rights and anger at how their lives are becoming unaffordable and unbearable.
He says effectively taxing the super-rich to reduce their power, including with broad-base taxes on income and wealth at high enough rates, would reduce massive levels of inequality.
Malawi’s Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Joseph Mwanamvekha is quoted in the media as saying some of the tough measures that the Democratic Progressive Party administration has taken to reduce poverty are bearing fruit.
“We are working hard to stabilise the economy, restore confidence and accelerate inclusive growth,” Mwanamvekha is quoted as saying.
