The wealthy suffered the biggest decline in their wealth in a decade in 2022, study finds

People with the highest net worth saw their number and the value of their wealth experience the largest decline in ten years last year, according to an international study carried out by the consulting firm Capgemini, under the effect of a decline stock indices. The number of high-net-worth people worldwide, defined by Capgemini as people whose money available outside their main residence exceeds $1 million, fell 3.3% in 2022 to 21.7 million people, the firm calculated. in a study released Thursday.

Logically, the value of their fortune also declined, with an estimated total wealth of 83,000 billion dollars, a decrease of 3.6% compared to the previous year. “This represents the largest setback in ten years, due to macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties”, underlines Capgemini in its report which evaluated 71 countries and uses as methodology a statistical census system and a graphical representation called the Lorenz curve.

The outbreak of war in Ukraine and its consequences on the planet, as well as soaring inflation and rising central bank interest rates have made 2022 a particularly difficult year economically. Stock market indices fell sharply last year: the CAC 40 index lost 9.5%, the Nasdaq in the United States plunged 33%, and the S index

“There is necessarily a correlation” between the evolution of stock market indices and that of fortunes because fortune is increasingly made up of financial assets, estimates with AFP Elias Ghanem, director of financial research of the Capgemini group. Some of the wealthiest themselves saw a sharp slowdown in their wealth growth last year, from the world's biggest fortune and LVMH boss Bernard Arnault to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg or L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, according to Forbes magazine's Real Time Wealth Index.

In detail, fortunes located in North America experienced the largest decline in value with -7.4%, followed by those located in Europe (-3.2%) and Asia-Pacific (-2.7%). ), according to the study. Conversely, those located in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East have progressed, notes Capgemini, thanks to solid performances in the oil and gas sectors, whose prices have soared with the outbreak of the war. in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia by the West. In January Oxfam had estimated in a report published at the opening of the Davos Forum that “economic inequalities have reached extreme and dangerous levels” and the NGO had pleaded to “abolish” the long-term billionaires.