Jeff Bezos is world s richest man: Forbes

New York March 7 (IANS) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos tops this year s Forbes World s Billionaires list with a record fortune of $122 billion.

Bezos fortune increased by $39.2 billion in 2017 - the largest up move in anyone s net worth recorded by Forbes last year - dethroning philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates whose net worth is calculated at $90 billion Efe reported.

While Gates has headed the world s richest list 18 times over the last 24 years the gap between his fortune and that of Bezos is the largest between two first-place moguls since 2001 according to Forbes.

Bezos and Gates are trailed by American investor Warren Buffet - with an estimated fortune of $84 billion - followed by Frenchman Bernard Arnault the head of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE with a net worth of $72 billion climbing seven positions and Europe s richest person.

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg rounds out the top-5 list with a net worth of $71 billion.

Spaniard Amancio Ortega the founder of clothes retailer Zara dropped to 6th place after losing $1.3 billion his fortune now calculated at $70 billion.

The magazine also reported that US President Donald Trump s net worth is $3.1 billion the $400 million loss he suffered over the past year resulting in a plunge of more than 200 places in the ranking from 544th to 766th. In 2017 Trump s net worth was calculated by Forbes to be $3.5 billion some $1 billion less than it had been on the 2016 Billionaires List.

The Forbes World s Billionaires list includes 2 208 people from all over the world whose fortunes are calculated to be at least $1 billion.

This year s list included 259 new billionaires while the names of 121 people who had made the list on previous occasions were dropped due to losses.

--IANS
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