PRESS RELEASE — The COVID-19
pandemic and cost-of-living crisis were a windfall for the ultra-wealthy in the
Middle East and North Africa (MENA), who saw their wealth almost double between
2019 and 2022, reveals an Oxfam report published today ahead of the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings in Marrakech.
اضافة اعلان
The richest 0.05
percent – 106080 people- with wealth above $5 million saw their wealth surge by
75 percent from $1.6 trillion in 2019 to $3 trillion by the end of 2022. In
addition, the region’s 23 billionaires have accumulated more wealth in the last
three years than in the entire decade that preceded them.
The wealthy elite
in Jordan and Morocco also experienced a boom between 2019 and 2022, with the
net wealth of the richest people increasing from US$19bn to US$31bn and from
US$28.6bn to
US$31.5bn
respectively
This boom in
ultra-wealth comes on the back of every country in MENA sinking deeper into
debt. In Tunisia, public debt increased from 43
percent of GDP in 2010 to 80 percent in 2021, in Egypt from 70 percent to 90
percent, and in Morocco from 45 percent to 69 percent. Lebanon saw its
debt increase to a staggering 151 percent in 2020 when the country was forced
to default on it.
The IMF is
providing financial assistance to three countries in the region, with at least
two others in the midst of loan negotiations. Over the past decade, the IMF has
insisted on harmful austerity policies in its loan programs that have
contributed to the underfunding of critical inequality-busting public services,
such as healthcare and education.
“It has been an
astonishing few years for the wealthy. They’ve thrived as the pandemic and
inflation have squeezed family finances and forced millions of people into
poverty,” said report author and Oxfam International Senior Policy Advisor Nabil Abdo.
“Austerity
measures are not the answer to the Middle East’s colliding challenges —they
serve only to shield the wealthiest people in society from shouldering any of
the burdens of economic reforms, while entrenching inequality and poverty,”
Abdo said.
Even before the
pandemic, the MENA region was one of the most unequal in the world, as
countries grappled with complex challenges including conflict, climate change,
rising unemployment and grossly underfunded public services.
Oxfam is calling
on governments to claw back this extreme wealth for the public good. A five
percent wealth tax on fortunes over $5 million in Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and
Jordan combined could generate $10 billion in revenue. This could be used to invest in quality
public services, peace and security, and tackling climate change.
Such a wealth tax
would allow Egypt to double its spending on healthcare, Jordan to double its
education budget and Lebanon to increase its spending on both healthcare and
education seven times over. Morocco alone could raise $1.22 billion, at a time
it is facing an $11.7 billion repair bill from the recent devastating
earthquake there.
“Governments of
the region must reject austerity and the devastating consequences it brings,
and instead work towards fulfilling the aspirations of their people. The IMF
needs to enable governments to pursue economic policies that redistribute
income and wealth and invest in public goods. It’s time to tax wealth and begin
closing the massive divide between the rich and the rest of us,” Abdo said.
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