62 people own as much as the poorest half of the world.

We live in a world where 62 people own as much as the poorest half of the world's population combined. It's almost hard to take in. Although the problem of growing economic inequality has been put on the political agenda, the trend continued last year. Today, one percent of the world's population owns more than the remaining 99 percent combined.

An Oxfam report shows that the assets of the poorest half of the world's population have fallen by $1 trillion since 2010. This is despite the world's population increasing by around 400 million people. At the top of the scale, different winds are blowing. There, the assets of the 62 richest individuals have grown by more than half a trillion dollars over the same period.

Abolish tax havens

Although the number of people living in poverty has been halved between 1990 and 2010, the average annual income of the poorest 10% of the world's population has only increased by less than $3 per year over the same period. In most countries of the world, an increasingly smaller share of gross domestic product is also going to workers, which partly explains the widening gap between those at the top and bottom of the income scale. As is often the case, women are the most affected as the majority of the world's low-paid workers are women.

A contributing factor to the problem of growing inequality is tax havens. Oxfam estimates that corporate tax evasion costs the world's poorest countries over $100 billion each year in lost tax revenue. This is money that could be spent on education, healthcare and other social services that help people escape poverty. Between 2000 and 2014, investment in tax havens has almost quadrupled, a trend that must be reversed.

The way forward

Oxfam is calling on world leaders to change the rules that allow multinational companies to hide their assets to avoid taxes. The billions lost should be returned provided the money is spent on health, education and other social sectors that benefit people in these countries. The world's governments should also take steps to ensure that work pays, no matter where you are on the wage scale.