The old order is under threat at the world’s billionaires club. Traditionally dominated by Americans and Europeans, the top ranks of the world’s richest people have been infiltrated by scores of ultra-rich entrepreneurs from the developing world - capped by the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim.
Today, Slim, the titan of mobile phones in Mexico, criticised as a ruthless monopolist, was crowned as the richest person in the world by Forbes magazine, which calculated his net worth at $53.5bn (£35.7bn). Bolstered by a surge in the share price of his America Movil empire, Slim’s wealth edged ahead of the $53bn fortune amassed by the Microsoft boss Bill Gates, making the portly cigar-smoking 70-year-old the first non-American to hold the top spot since 1994.
To read this report in The Guardian in full, see: www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/10/forbes-rich-list-carlos-slim
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