Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski
A protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask carries an Occupy Wall Street placard in front of the Reichstag building during an Occupy Berlin protest denouncing current banking and financial industry practices in Berlin Nov. 12, 2011.
- The world's richest people - the so-called 1% - will control almost two-thirds of global wealth by 2030.
- That's according to a report from the House of Commons library, commissioned by Labour MP Liam Byrne.
- Currently the top 1% own 50.1% of all household wealth in the world, according to a Credit Suisse report last year.
LONDON - The world's richest 1% of people will control close to two-thirds of all global wealth by the year 2030, according to report produced by the House of Commons library, the research arm of the UK's parliament.
The global elite currently control around 50% of wealth around the world, but that is likely to keep increasing, the Commons research, commissioned by Labour MP Liam Byrne, said.
If trends seen since the 2008 financial crash were to continue, the report notes, the so-called 1% will control 64% of global wealth in just 12 years time.
According to the Guardian, which first reported the statistics, the wealth of the richest 1% "has been growing at an average of 6% a year - much faster than the 3% growth in wealth of the remaining 99% of the world's population," since the financial crisis.
If the trend continues, the 1% will have a total net worth of $305 trillion, more than double the $140 trillion they control in 2018.
"If we don't take steps to rewrite the rules of how our economies work, then we condemn ourselves to a future that remains unequal for good," Byrne, the report's commissioner said.
"That's morally bad, and economically disastrous, risking a new explosion in instability, corruption and poverty."
Last year, Swiss lender Credit Suisse published a report which found that the world's richest 1% of families and individuals already hold over half of global wealth, and argued that inequality is still worsening almost a decade after the worst global recession since the 1930s.
"The bottom half of adults collectively own less than 1% of total wealth, the richest decile (top 10% of adults) owns 88% of global assets, and the top percentile alone accounts for half of total household wealth," the Credit Suisse report said.
Put another way: "The top 1% own 50.1% of all household wealth in the world."