OREANDA-NEWS. The total fortune of the world’s dollar billionaires rose by 27.5% during the global pandemic, reaching 10.2 trillion US dollars at the end of July 2020 (up from an estimate of 8 trillion in early April). This follows from the Billionaires Insights 2020 report prepared by UBS and PwC. This is a new maximum that surpassed the previous record of 8.9 trillion dollars at the end of 2017.

The standard date for assessing the number and fortunes of billionaires by UBS and PwC is April 7, but this year it was decided to extend the study to the end of July to cover the effect of epidemic and the stock market recovery after the March drop.

As of April 7, there were 2,058 billionaires in the world, 43 fewer than in 2019. Their total fortune was estimated at 8 trillion dollars. By the date of completion of the study, July 31, the number of billionaires had risen to 2,189, and their fortune reached 10.2 trillion dollars.

Over the past decade, the fortune of billionaires has almost tripled, from 2.8 trillion to 8 trillion dollars, and their number has doubled from 969 at the end of 2009.