BRICs produce half of worlds new billionaires

NEW YORK: rising global commodity prices and an economic boom in Asia has led to a large increase in the number of billionaires in Russia, China and Brazil in 2011.
China has almost doubled its number of billionaires to 115, while Russia and Brazil are located two-thirds goes to 101 and 30, respectively, Forbes said in its annual list of richest people in the world.
This was the first time any country outside the United States, which has 413 billionaires, there were more than 100. Moscow is now home to the majority of people on the list with 79 billionaires, easily ahead of New York, which is only 58.
The richest man in the world, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, retained his crown for the second year in a row and earned more money than any of the other 1,209 billionaires in the last year: $ 20.5 billion, taking his fortune to $ 74 billion.
Billionaire Russian growth was associated with the boom of the goods. Brazil also benefited from higher commodity prices, as well as more stringent disclosure rules and a strong currency. In China and India, which has 55 billionaires, after the addition of six strong economy has helped create a wealth of different sectors.
"The bottom line is, BRIC, commodities and Asia-Pacific region," CEO Forbes Steve Forbes at a press conference on Wednesday. "There is a global boom in commodities. But, as we have learned ... products can reach a very sharp, they can go down very sharply."
Reuters Jefferies CRB commodities index rose 17 percent last year and another 8 percent this year, as copper and gold have reached record highs, grains near their peaks in 2008 and, more recently, oil prices rose over $ 100 a barrel.
Brazil, Russia, India and China produced half the world's 214 new billionaires and 97 doubles last year's newcomers.
Among the newcomers to the Forbes list of four billionaires whose fates are linked with social network Facebook - co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin and investor George Milner and Sean Parker. They join, the co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who grew up to number 52 from number 212 and is currently estimated to cost between $ 13.5 billion, and Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who was also previously on the list.
One of the biggest engines to the list of U.S. casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who posted the greatest increase in wealth for the Slim.
He is worth $ 23.3 billion, compared with $ 14 billion, and soared into the number 16 from number 73 last year in a remarkable turnaround for a businessman whose Las Vegas Sands Corp close to defaulting on its debt in 2008.
Although the number of Indian billionaires did not increase significantly, their "average equity ... is huge - 4.5 billion dollars for the Indian billionaire, compared to $ 2.5 billion of Chinese billionaires," Forbes said.
Russia also won China with 15 billionaires in the top 100, compared with China alone, while India and Brazil has seven three.