The world’s ten richest men have seen their combined wealth increase by $540 billion (£400 billion) during the pandemic, while the crisis threatens a lost decade in the fight against poverty, Oxfam revealed today in a report published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda.

The coronavirus pandemic has swept across a world unprepared to fight it, because countries had failed to choose policies to fight inequality.

In 2015, the leaders of 193 governments promised to reduce inequality under Goal 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Without reducing inequality, meeting SDG 1 to eliminate poverty will be impossible.