Brazil, ‘eternal’ champion of global inequality

2023-09-15 02:17:57

Time passes, time flies, but the country’s inequality continues well… The parody of an old bank advertisement (not by chance) portrays the cruel reality of the most unequal country on the planet, when it comes to income distribution.

This is what the most recent edition of the Global Wealth Report 2023 attests, according to which ‘pindorama’ remains at the forefront of global socioeconomic inequity, in which almost half of all wealth (48.4% or around R$1, 28 trillion) is in the hands of just 1% of the population (just over 2 million people), the so-called super rich.

Considering the survey by Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), based on crossing data from the Census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) with the continuous PNAD, of the 1% richest Brazilian segment, the average wealth per person is around R$4.6 million, among those over 18 years old.

But if the stratum corresponds to 0.1% of the population, the assets jump to R$26.2 million per person. Another ‘curiosity’ of the FGV study is that at least half of the wealth of the richest 1% segment is made up of real estate, their main asset, followed by shares and vehicles.

By analyzing the family wealth of 5.4 billion people around the world, Global Wealth projected that global wealth will reach US$629 trillion by the year 2027. Of this amount, Latin America is expected to contribute US$2 .4 trillion. For the first time since 2008, in 2022 there was a drop in inequality, in which the share of the richest 1% fell to 44.5% of the global total.

Also last year, the number of millionaires in the world decreased by 3.5 million, to 59.4 million. This data, however, excludes the group of 4.4 million “inflation millionaires”, taking into account inflation from a year ago.

For the global financial services company UBS, it will be up to middle-income countries to play the role of ‘driver’ of global trends in the coming years

In the ranking of wealth losses last year, the leadership went to the United States, Japan, China, Canada and Australia. In contrast, the greatest increases in wealth were identified in Russia, Mexico, India and Brazil.

Share of wealth held by the richest 1% (of the population):

Brazil: 48.4%;

India: 41%;

United States: 34.3%;

China: 31,1%;

Germany: 30%;

South Korea: 23.1%;

Italy: 23.1%;

Australia: 21.7%;

France: 21.2%;

United Kingdom: 20.7%;

Japan: 18.8%.