In its UBS Billionaire Ambitions report, UBS Group AG, a multinational investment bank and financial services company, revealed that 360 billionaires globally lost their billionaire status in 2022 due to macroeconomic volatility, geopolitical tensions, and supply chain disruptions that impacted both the performance and valuation of companies during the year.
Switzerland’s largest financial services group and one of Europe’s largest banks, UBS revealed that 360 billionaires lost their billionaire status in 2022, while 273 UHNWIs became billionaires this year.
According to the group, there were 2,668 dollar billionaires in 2022, 87 fewer than a year earlier, as the number of billionaires in the world decreased as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine, monetary policy tightening, stock market declines, and the Chinese economic slowdown.
“It’s a time of shifting fortunes. Rapidly rising interest rates, stop-start pandemic reopening and war in Europe are feeding market uncertainty and volatility, with wealth created and eroded in almost equal measure,” UBS stated in its Billionaire Ambitions report, adding that amid the turmoil, some themes persist, particularly the broad concept of smart innovators rising to the top.
During the year under review, the Asia-Pacific region’s billionaire population remained the largest but fell by 59 to 1,084, while the number of Chinese billionaires, as well as those from the Middle East and Africa, fell from 626 to 540 and 91 to 89 billionaires, respectively.
Similarly to Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region, the number of billionaires in Western and Eastern Europe fell from 474 to 467 and 91 to 89, respectively, while the number of billionaires in the United States increased from 724 to 735.
This latest report comes nearly a week after Billionaires.Africa reported that four African billionaires may soon lose their billionaire status.
Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwe’s richest man and a leading telecom and tech billionaire, whose net worth has dropped from nearly $3 billion at the start of the year to $1.2 billion, is one of four billionaires on the verge of losing their billionaire status, according to Billionaires.Africa.
