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Bill Gates, one of the world's richest
people, pictured 15 February, 2005. It has been a good year
for billionaires, with the super-wealthy increasing their
collective net worth by 300 billion dollars, Forbes Magazine reported in its annual ranking of the world's richest
people. | |
Thanks to a surge in demand for steel, the
Internet and Scandinavian
sofas, there are some new names among the very richest of the world's
billionaires.
Indian steel mogul Lakshmi Mittal, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim
Helu and Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad of Sweden knocked several Wal-Mart
heirs down a few notches on
Forbes magazine's 2005 rankings of the world's billionaires.
The billionaires are richer and more numerous for the second straight
year, but the No. 1 spot is unchanged - Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates
led the list for the eleventh year in a
row with a net worth of $46.5 billion, slightly less than
his $46.6 billion last year.
Investor Warren Buffet held a close second with $44 billion, up from
$42.9 billion in 2004.
Mittal - the biggest dollar gainer after quadrupling his net worth by
$18.8 billion to $25 billion - climbed 59 rungs from last year to No. 3 in
2005.
Rounding out the top 10 were Microsoft's Paul Allen, German supermarket
company owner Karl Albrecht, Oracle Corp.'s Lawrence Ellison - returning
to the top 10 after slipping to No. 12 last year - and Wal-Mart Stores
Inc.'s S. Robson Walton.
The number of billionaires grew to a record 691 from 587 last year, and
their total net worth rose by $300 billion to $2.2 trillion.
A confluence of factors contributed to the increase, said Forbes
associate editor Luisa Kroll, including positive performance by many stock
markets around the world - for example, in Ukraine and Iceland, countries
that debuted on the list along with Kazakhstan and Poland - and the
falling dollar.
Between February 2004 and February 2005, the 12-nation euro rose about
4 percent against the dollar, while the British pound rose about 3 percent
versus the U.S. currency.
"If you were a euro-based billionaire, you could've done nothing and
seen a 20 percent increase" over the past two years, Kroll said.
Soaring commodities like oil and steel also helped make the rich
richer, as did the overall recovery of the global economy over the past
few years.
One of this year's new billionaires - and one of the list's 68 women,
up from 53 last year - was Martha Stewart, whose wealth swelled to $1
billion despite her conviction for lying about a stock sale and ensuing
five-month prison stint.
(AFP) |
由于人們對鋼鐵、網絡和斯堪的納維亞式沙發的需求迅速增長，全球富豪排行榜上又出現了一些新名字。
印度鋼鐵巨頭拉克希米·米塔爾、墨西哥電信首腦卡洛斯·斯里姆·荷魯和瑞士家居品牌“宜家”的創始人英格瓦·坎普拉德將幾名沃爾瑪公司的繼承人從《財富》雜志2005年度的"富豪榜"上擠到了后面。
今年上榜的富豪們比去年更富有，人數也更為眾多，但美國微軟公司的頭號交椅卻無人撼動。這已經是微軟創始人比爾·蓋茨連續第11年高居榜首，他的公司的凈財富為465億美元，略低于去年的466億美元。
緊跟在第二位的是投資者沃倫·巴菲特，他的資產從2004年的429億美元上升到現在的440億美元。
（全球最大鋼鐵制造商）米塔爾的凈財富翻了四番，成為最大的美元收獲者，目前其凈資產總值為250億美元，比去年上漲了188億美元，在富豪榜的排名上升了59位，現居第三名。
排在前十名的還有微軟的保羅·艾倫，德國經營連鎖超市的富商卡爾·阿爾布萊希特，Oracle
公司的勞倫斯·埃利森（去年滑到12名的他今年重返前10），以及沃爾瑪連鎖超市的塞繆爾·羅伯森·沃爾頓。今年的億萬富翁的人數達到了歷史性的691人，高于去年的587人，而且他們的凈財富總額上升到2.2億萬美元，比去年增加了三千億美元。
福布斯的副編輯路易莎·克羅爾說，一系列的事實共同造就了這種增長，包括世界各地的許多股票市場的積極表現，以及美元的不斷貶值。提到“世界各地”的股票市場，烏克蘭和冰島兩國的名字和哈薩克斯坦、波蘭一起首次出現在全球富豪排行榜上。
2004年2月到2005年2月間，歐盟12國之間流通的歐元對美元的比價上升了大約4%，而英鎊對美元的比價上升了3%。
“如果你是一個主要積儲歐元的億萬富翁，那么在過去兩年中，你可以什么都不用做，就能看到你的財富增加了20%。”克羅爾說。
過去幾年來全球經濟的全面恢復，以及對油類和鋼鐵等商品的需求激增，都使富者愈富。
今年有一位新的億萬富豪叫做瑪莎·斯圖爾特，她是富豪榜上的68位女性之一，去年排在第53位。她的財富上升到了10億美元，盡管她在銷售一支股票時因涉嫌欺瞞罪，被判了五個月的監禁。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2005-03-14 09:21