LONDON 20 Jan (ANA) - The number of billionaires has doubled in the past decade and the world's 22 richest men now have more wealth than all the women in Africa, Oxfam said Monday in an appeal to the Davos elite to get serious about inequality.

 

"Our broken economies are lining the pockets of billionaires and big business at the expense of ordinary men and women. No wonder people are starting to question whether billionaires should even exist," Oxfam's India head Amitabh Behar said.

 

"Women and girls are among those who benefit least from today's economic system," Behar said ahead of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, where he will represent Oxfam.

 

There will be at least 119 billionaires worth about $500 billion attending Davos this year, Bloomberg reported, with the highest contingents coming from the United States, India and Russia.

 

"The very top of the economic pyramid sees trillions of dollars of wealth in the hands of a very small group of people, predominantly men," the Oxfam report said.

 

"Their wealth is already extreme, and our broken economy concentrates more and more wealth into these few hands," it said.

 

The report said women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work each and every day, estimated to be worth at least $10.8 trillion a year.

 

Oxfam's annual report on global inequality is traditionally released just before the forum opens on Tuesday in the Swiss Alpine resort.(ANA)

FA/ANA/20 January 2020--------