2016 has not proved fruitful so far for some of the richest people on the planet, including Bill Gates.
BloombergBusiness has reported that the world’s 400 wealthiest people have lost a combined $305 billion (roughly £214 billion) since the turn of the year.
Faltering worldwide growth has seen Microsoft mogul Bill Gates lose an estimated $6.8 billion (roughly £4.7 billion) from his net worth alone. That has got to hurt.
It is Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos who has taking the biggest hit so far. The Bloomberg Billionaire Index reports that he has lost $8.9 billion (£6.2 billion) since the start of January.
A handful of the world’s richest have survived 2016 unscathed, even adding to their wealth. But it is a very small handful.
In total nine people have seen their net worth increase, with Indian oil baron Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, leading the way with gains of $620 million (roughly £635 million). Not bad at all.
Lets be honest though, even with the widespread losses, these guys are hardly going to fall below the bread line any time soon.
