A closer look at the Forbes billionaire data for
BY JOACHIM BAMRUD
The total fortune of
That marks a new record, although the increase from 2011 is a slowdown compared to the rates the previous years. In the 2011-10 period, the fortune grew by 46.7 percent, while it jumped 84.3 percent in the period 2009-10.
Carlos Slim remains the richest man in
Slim’s fortune of $69 billion is almost as large as the total
However, this year saw a new entry in fourth place -- Mexican mogul Ricardo Salinas, who saw his estimated fortune double to $17.4 billion.
His fortune is twice as large as the
Although Slim dominates the list,
This year there were 12 more billionaires in
Meanwhile, Bloomberg just launched a Billionaire Index that tracks the estimated daily fortune of Slim, Batista and 18 other people that are ranked as the richest in the world. Forbes has announced that it plans a similar list, but covering 50 individuals and updated every 15 minutes.
Here are the links to the results of Forbes’ annual ranking:
Richest People and Country GDPs
2012 estimated fortunes and country GDPs in billions of US dollars.
Rk | Person/Country | 2012 |
1 | $71.6 | |
2 | Carlos Slim | $69.0 |
3 | $58.9 | |
4 | $53.1 | |
5 | $49.6 | |
6 | $43.8 | |
7 | $33.3 | |
8 | Eike Batista | $30.0 |
9 | $26.9 | |
10 | $26.5 | |
11 | $24.3 | |
12 | $18.5 | |
13 | Iris Fontbona | $17.8 |
14 | Ricardo | $17.4 |
15 | Luis Carlos Sarmiento | $12.4 |
16 | $8.3 | |
17 | $7.4 | |
18 | Gustavo Cisneros | $4.2 |
Sources: Forbes (billionaire estimated fortune),
International Monetary Fund (
Latin Business Chronicle (ranking)