Bill Gates (Photo : REUTERS/JIM URQUHART)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed on early Wednesday that Greece missed an important payment, worsening further the financial crisis that caused billionaires to lose a combined $70 billion on Monday. The average loss was $175 million.
Data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated the combined losses of the 400 wealthiest people in the world at $70 billion after equity markets in different countries were hit by fears of a Greece default as well as declines in China. NASDAQ shed 2.4 percent on Monday, S&P declined 2.1 percent, the Euro Stoxx index went down 4.2 percent, while the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Composite Index plummeted over 6 percent.
The biggest loser is Zara owner Amancio Ortega of Spain, also the richest person in Europe, whose wealth was reduced by $2.2 billion on June 29. His wealth was reduced by 3.2 percent to $69.2 billion.
After Ortega came American investment guru Warren Buffet who lost $1.6 billion. However, the loss did not diminish Buffett's standing as the third-richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $67.1 billion. Likewise, Bill Gates held on to the number one spot even if he lost $1.4 billion or 1.7 percent of his wealth.
Collectively, their losses represented a 1.5 percent dip in the billionaires' fortune. The $70 billion loss is even bigger than the market capitalization of Twenty-First Century Fox or Ford Motor, notes Bloomberg.
However, there were also gainers, specifically 12 billionaires led by Aliko Dangote of Nigeria. Dangote's fortune jumped on Monday by $15.4 billion to $180 million, following the 2.35 percent appreciation in shareprices of Dangote Cement. With that boost, Dangote held on to his title as Africa's wealthiest person, although globally he ranked 59th.
The IMF declared Greece "in arrears" rather than used the word "default" even if Athens missed the payment of $1.7 billion debt to the fund. Since the IMF is not a commercial financial institution, credit rating agencies will likewise not consider Greece in default on account of the missed IMF payment.
Greece is also expected to miss its payments to its bond holders and the European Central Bank which are due in the coming weeks. Greece joins three impoverish African nations in missing payments to the IMF. The three are Zimbabwe, Sudan and Somalia.
Commenting on this development, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, said, "They are joining countries we would normally regard as failed and failing states ... The symbolism is quite dramatic," quotes the New York Times.
