Wealth growth rate of French billionaires since the start of the pandemic 2020-2022
Record wealth growth for French billionaires
In 2021, there were 954 billionaires in Europe, among which 68 in France, and 50 in the capital. In 2022, the richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, whose fortune grew from 85.7 billion euros in 2020 to nearly 180 billion euros in 2022, surpassing that of Elon Musk, was French. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the luxury magnate, whose group LVMH includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchi, and Dior, could spend a dollar a second (without increasing his wealth, and in the absence of inflation or deflation) that his fortune would still last him more than five millennia.The wealthiest woman in the world was also French: during the same two years, the fortune of Françoise Bettencourt Meyers rose from 55.2 billion euros to nearly 73 billion euros (+32 percent). Moreover, in 2021, the top five French family-owned groups listed on the CAC40 received around five billion euros in dividends, and almost half of these profits went to the Arnault family.