The 124 richest people in Brazil correspond to 12.3% of the country’s GDP

Note from BW of Brazil: For many years Brazil has been described as being part Belgium and part India; in other words, on the one hand, there is a lot of wealth and also quite wealthy people but on the other hand there are also masses of poor people. Although there has been much hoopla about Brazil’s entry onto the world stage as the country moved into 6th place of the world’s largest economies, was chosen to host the 2014 World Cup, the 2016 Olympics and a “new middle class” was born, this list of rich individuals shows who really benefited from the country’s meteoric rise. As you read this article, keep in mind that Brazil is a country of more than 200 million people. 

The 124 richest people in Brazil have accumulated assets equivalent to R$544 billion, which helps to understand why the country is considered one of the most unequal in the world

courtesy of Economia

The 124 richest people in Brazil accumulate assets equivalent to R$544 billion, about 12.3% of the Produto Interno Bruto (PIB or Gross Domestic Product – GDP), which helps to understand why it is considered one of the most unequal countries in the world. These 124 people are part of the latest list of billionaires released on Monday (September 9th) by Forbes magazine, which includes all Brazilians whose fortune exceeds US$1 billion.

The chief investor of the 3G Capital fund, Jorge Paulo Lemann, who has acquired the maker of Heinz ketchup and is a major shareholder of AB InBev brewery and Burger King, took first place. The fortune of Lemann, 74, amounts to US$38.24 billion, while second place on the list, Joseph Safra, the Lebanese-born entrepreneur and owner of Safra bank, has assets of US$33.9 billion.

Most fortunes correspond to members of families that dominate the large companies in sectors such as banking, construction and food. Among the 124 Brazilian billionaires, only the co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin, constituted their assets through the internet. The entrepreneur Eike Batista, who became the seventh richest man in the world and lost part of his fortune through the plummeting value of the shares of his oil company OGX and the rest of the companies of his conglomerate EBX, came in 52th place in the list.

The great wealth concentrated in these millionaires proves the veracity of the official indicators that classify Brazil as one of the countries with the greatest disparities between rich and poor. The country’s Gini index was 0.501 points in 2011, on a scale from zero to one, where higher values ​​show a deeper gap between rich and poor. Approximately 41.5% of labor income is concentrated in the hands of the richest 10%, according to the 2010 census, while half of the population lived, in that year, with a per capita income of less than R$375.

Top 10 richest Brazilians

1. Jorge Paulo Lemann
Fortune: R$38,24 billion (US$17.32 billion)
2. Joseph Safra
Fortune: R$ 33,90 billion (US $15.35 billion)
3. Antônio Ermírio de Moraes and family
Fortune: R$ 25,68 billion (US $11.63 billion)
4. Marcel Herrmann Telles
Fortune: R$ 19,50 billion (US $8.83 billion)
5. Roberto Irineu Marinho
Fortune: R$ 17,28 billion (US $7.83 billion)
6. João Roberto Marinho
Fortune: R$ 17,26 billion (US $7.82 billion)
7. José Roberto Marinho
Fortune: R$ 17,10 billion (US $7.75 billion)
8. Carlos Alberto Sicupira
Fortune: R$ 16,78 bilhões (US $7.60 billion)
9. Norberto Odebrecht and family
Fortune: R$ 10,10 billion (US $4.57 billion)
10. Francisco Ivens de Sá Dias Branco
Fortune: R$ 9,62 billion (US $4.36 billion)

Source: Economia, Economia (2)