Billionaire wealth has so far surged by nearly $10 trillion amid the fifth global economic crisis since 2020.
G7 countries slashed aid to the world’s poorest countries by $48 billion between 2024 and 2025 —a sum G7 billionaires accumulated in just nine days.
Oxfam calls on the “G6″ to stop using US intransigence as an excuse for inaction, urging taxes on excessive profits and the super-rich, debt suspension, more aid, and new Special Drawing Rights.
41 G7 energy billionaires have increased their wealth by $23.5 billion since the unlawful US and Israel war against Iran began, reveals new Oxfam analysis published ahead of the G7 summit in Evian, France. This is equivalent to about $1,000 in the time it takes to blink. Billionaires globally have gained $9.8 trillion since 2020.
Soaring energy and food prices are devastating households worldwide, particularly across low- and middle-income countries already battered by years of economic turmoil, debt crises, and climate shocks.
At the same time, six oil majors’ profits are projected to skyrocket by 80 percent ($68 billion) over pre-war forecasts. Their profits are on track to hit $152 billion in 2026, equivalent to $416 million a day. This windfall extends to other industries: three of the world’s top fertilizer corporations are expected to see profits jump by 23 percent ($928 million) compared to pre-war estimates. Overall, combined profits for some of the largest G7-headquartered corporations are expected to exceed pre-war projections by $413 million on average.
“Conflict devastates countries and costs countless lives, yet for some it is extraordinarily profitable,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar. “This is a brutal system that redistributes wealth upwards —from workers to shareholders, from the poorest to the richest, from those with the least power to those who already have far too much of it. While families are skipping meals and governments slash lifesaving aid, we are witnessing a grotesque billionaire bonanza.”
This fifth major global crisis since 2020 is being met with political paralysis and retreat. Unlike the coordinated international action seen in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine —when governments temporarily suspended debt service payments and the International Monetary Fund provided emergency lending—, G7 leaders are doing less than ever to help poorer countries.
Crucially, Oxfam warns that the remaining “G6” leaders —Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK— must stop using the US administration’s destructive actions in the global economy and in fueling conflict as an excuse for their own inaction. The G6 possesses immense, independent financial and diplomatic leverage that they are choosing to withhold.
Between 2024 and 2025, the G7 presided over the largest reduction in official development assistance (ODA) in its history, slashing aid to the world’s poorest countries by $48 billion. This is equivalent to the wealth accumulated by G7 billionaires in just nine days during that same period.
The human cost of the G7’s inaction is catastrophic. Since France last chaired the G7 summit, 44 people have fallen into a humanitarian emergency every single minute. From the preventable Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the ongoing genocide in Gaza —the most extreme and devastating example of G7 inaction, where not a single G7 country has imposed an arms embargo on Israel, let alone cut off arms being used in atrocities— multilateralism is being actively destroyed.
“To secure President Trump’s attendance at this summit, President Macron agreed to ignore discussions on climate breakdown, spiraling inequality, and the need for coordinated responses to overlapping global crises,” said Behar. “Even words like ‘gender’ or ‘climate’ have been expunged from the agenda to appease Washington. Rather than defending collective governance, Macron and his peers are accommodating its destruction. This will have consequences measured in lives.”
“The G6 can’t plead powerlessness,” Behar added. “They can cancel debt. They can tax windfall profits and extreme wealth. They can advocate for a new issuance of Special Drawing Rights. They can provide poorer countries with aid. Refusing to act simply because Washington will not join them is not diplomacy —it is cowardice. And it will only accelerate the G6’s slide into global irrelevance.”
Oxfam is calling on G7 leaders —and the G6 independently if necessary— to immediately implement a four-part response to protect ordinary people from the crisis:
Tax the excessive profits of corporations and the super-rich to reduce inequality.
Suspend and cancel debt. Replicate the COVID-19 playbook by immediately suspending all bilateral debt payments from low- and middle-income countries and use legislative mechanisms to force private creditors to do the same. Cancel unsustainable debt, which forces governments to make devastating cuts to essential public services.
Boost aid. Meet ODA commitments by returning to the 0.7 percent Gross National Income (GNI) target.
Unlock global liquidity. Support an immediate new issuance of Special Drawing Rights through the IMF —decoupled from quota shares— to inject much-needed liquidity into struggling economies without adding to their debt burdens. Concurrently, International financial institutions must deploy conditionality-free emergency lending, mirroring the crisis response deployed during the pandemic.
Notes to editors
Download Oxfam’s media brief and methodology note.
G7 energy billionaires increased their wealth by $23.5 billion since the war began. This is equivalent to $301 million per day, $3,487 per second or $1,046 every 0.3 seconds (average time it takes to blink).
The UNDP estimates that the unlawful US and Israel war against Iran could push more than 30 million people into poverty worldwide. The FAO Food Price Index —which tracks the international prices of a basket of globally-traded food commodities— rose more than three times faster during the February-April period in 2026 than it did during the corresponding months in 2025.
Billionaire wealth data is based on Oxfam’s analysis of Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaire List as of 18 May 2026.
Corporate profit projections were calculated using 2026 consensus net income estimates —the average forecast of a corporation’s profits based on analyst projections— sourced from S&P Capital IQ. Pre-war estimates from 25 February 2026, were compared against the most current forecasts as of 26 May 2026. The analysis focused on the world’s “Big Six” oil corporations and the three largest publicly listed fertilizer corporations by 2025 revenue. For the broader G7 analysis, researchers evaluated corporations within the S&P 1,200 Index, filtering out non-G7 countries, corporations projected to post net losses, and those without available consensus estimates. This resulted in a final sample size of 691 corporations.
G7 countries account for around three-quarters of all official development assistance (ODA).
Across the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Lebanon, and Iran, Israeli military operations have killed over 78,000 people, injured more than 200,000, and displaced millions.
Gaza: over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed and 172,000 injured.
Lebanon: recent escalations have killed 3,185 people, injured more than 9,600, and forced over 1.2 million from their homes.\
Iran: UN agencies estimate that up to 3.2 million people have been displaced, alongside thousands killed and tens of thousands injured.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is hitting a country already stretched to breaking point. Ongoing conflict and years of aid cuts have deepened a humanitarian crisis of staggering scale: one in four people are going hungry. Those same aid cuts left DRC effectively exposed to Ebola, weakening the surveillance systems that should have detected this outbreak weeks earlier.
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