Wealth of Britain's 157 billionaires now equal to 22% of country's GDP

"The wealth of Britain's 157 billionaires is now equivalent to more than a fifth of the country's entire GDP, according to analysis by the Equality Trust a fivefold increase since 1990. The charity describes the trend, based on data in this year's Sunday Times rich list, as Britain's ghost GDP: headline economic growth increasingly disconnected from everyday life."

"Every year politicians point to GDP growth as proof the economy is working. Ghost GDP shows us what that ambition has done to the rest of us because for most of us, it doesn't feel like the economy is working at all, said Priya Sahni-Nicholas, the co-executive director of the Equality Trust. Ghost GDP and the hollowed out economy it creates, tells you what the rest of us have lost as a direct result."

"Gabriel Zucman, an economist at University of California, Berkeley and the Paris School of Economics, said that while in the postwar decades GDP growth numbers were broadly indicative of how income was growing for most of the population, today, there is a total disconnect between macroeconomic indicators and the reality of income gains for most people. He added: The upsurge of income and wealth among the super rich and the accounting of manipulations of multinational companies in Ireland are distorting macroeconomic numbers."

"When the Sunday Times first published its rich list in 1989, 15 billionaires held a total of 27bn about 4p in every pound of GDP at the time. Today, the Equality Trust calculates that 157 billionaires hold just under 670bn more than 22p in every pound. Workers have endured the longest pay squeeze in living memory, said Sahni-Nicholas. But the richest 50 families now hold more wealth than the poorest 34 million of us combined."

Britain’s 157 billionaires hold wealth equivalent to more than a fifth of the country’s GDP, a fivefold increase since 1990. The Equality Trust describes this as “Britain’s ghost GDP,” where headline economic growth is increasingly disconnected from everyday life. Politicians often cite GDP growth as evidence the economy is working, but most people do not experience corresponding improvements. The disconnect is linked to rising income and wealth among super-rich individuals and accounting practices by multinational companies that distort macroeconomic indicators. In 1989, 15 billionaires held about 4 pence in every pound of GDP; today, 157 billionaires hold just under 22 pence in every pound. The richest 50 families now hold more wealth than the poorest 34 million people combined.

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