Richest 1 pct holds 28 pct of all wealth in Brazil: survey

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The richest 1 percent of the Brazilian population own 28 percent of the country's wealth, according to an international report on inequality released on Thursday.

The World Inequality Report, released by a team of economists, said inequality has grown in Brazil. In 2015, the richest 1 percent of the population (roughly 1.4 million people) were found to control 25 percent of the wealth in the country.

According to the 2017 report, the 10 percent richest Brazilians have 55 percent of all the wealth in Brazil, up from 54 percent in 2015. It is one of the highest figures in the world, according to the study, lower only to the numbers registered in the Middle East and India.

The poorest 50 percent of the population, on the other hand, own only 12 percent of the total income in the country. The figures increased from 11 percent in 2015, but the impact of the rise is limited due to the low income of this group.

The wealth proportion of the middle class, the remaining 40 percent of the population, fell from 34 percent in 2015 to 32 percent in the current report.

"While inequality within the bottom 90 percent fell, driven by compression of labor incomes, concentration at the top of the distribution grew over the period, reflecting the increasing concentration of capital income," the report stated.

According to the study, although wage inequality decreased in Brazil over the past 20 years, mainly due to rising minimum wage and cash transfer efforts in the period, these were not enough to end extreme income concentration in the country.

"Due to a large concentration of business profits and capital incomes, the top 10 percent national income share reaches 55 percent in Brazil today and this value has not changed significantly for the past twenty years," the report said. Enditem