This year the world´s billionaires have an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23% in 12 months and the world now has 793 billionaires, down from 1,125 a year ago, the magazine said.
Microsoft´s Bill Gates reclaimed the number one spot, ahead of US investor Warren Buffet and Mexico´s telecom tycoon Carlos Slim, who both lost $25 billion last year. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was among those who dropped off the list.
The biggest loser in the world this year, by dollars, was last year´s biggest gainer. India´s Anil Ambani lost $32 billion - 76% of his fortune - as shares of his Reliance Communications, Reliance Power and Reliance Capital all collapsed.
Ambani is one of 24 Indian billionaires, all but one of whom are poorer than a year ago. Another 29 Indians lost their billionaire status entirely as India´s stock market tumbled 44% in the past year and the Indian rupee depreciated 18% against the dollar. It is no longer the top spot in Asia for billionaires, ceding that title to China, which has 28.
Russia became the epicenter of the world´s commodities bust, dropping 55 billionaires - two-thirds of its 2008 crop. Among them: Dmitry Pumpyansky, an industrialist from the resource-rich Ural mountain region, who lost $5 billion as shares of his pipe producer, TMK, sank 84%. Also gone is Vasily Anisimov, father of Moscow´s Paris Hilton, Anna Anisimova, who lost $3.2 billion as the value of his Metalloinvest Holding, one of Russia´s largest ore mining and processing firms, fell along with his real estate holdings, according to the Forbes.
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