Lebanon has the 3rd-highest degree of wealth inequality in the worldSource: Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2012Out of 141 countries, the U.S. has the 4th-highest degree of wealth inequality in the world, trailing only Russia, Ukraine,and Lebanon.Yet the financial industry keeps creating new wealth for its millionaires. According to the authors of theGlobal Wealth Report, the worlds wealth has doubled in ten years, from $113 trillion to $223 trillion, and is expected to reach $330 trillion by 2017.I was reading few facts on the inequality of Wealth and Income Distribution in the USA when I spotted Lebanon among the top countries with the highest degree of wealth inequality in the word. According to the below table, Lebanon has the 3rd-highest degree of wealth inequality in the world with a Wealth Gini of 85.7, with Russia leading the way and Ukraine in second spot.

However both theWorld Bank GiniandCIA Gininumbers are missing for Lebanon and I couldnt find a reliable source for the number provided even though it is linked back to theCredit Suisse report.Nevertheless, withalmost 30% of poverty in Lebanon, add to that high levels of corruption in the political body and major disparities in the poverty rates and income distribution, I wouldnt be surprised if we were placed in the top 15 or 20 countries.If anyone has a more reliable source to back these rankings, please do share.What is the GINI coefficient?According to the World Bank, the GINI coefficient measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. Therefore it is used as an indication of income inequality within countries. Practically, it measures the area between the Lorenz curve, a standard indicator of the distribution of income within a community, and a hypothetical line of absolute equality, expressed as a percentage of the maximum area under the line. In this index, 0 represents perfect equality, while 100 perfect inequality.Filthy richHalf a percent of Lebanese adults own half the country's wealthPublished October 18, 2013http://www.executive-magazine.com/millionaires-own-half-lebanese-wealth/At least 48 percent of Lebanon's privately-held wealth is concentrated in the hands of some 8,900 citizens just 0.3 percent of the adult population according to calculations based on a new report. The nation's staggering wealth inequality is detailed in Credit Suisse'sGlobal Wealth Databook 2013, released last week. The distorted wealth figures help to push the country's Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, to 86.3 percent the fourth highest globally behind Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan (see chart, below left).*While Credit Suisse did not directly publish how much wealth is in Lebanese millionaires' hands, Executive was able to estimate a lower bound based on the report andForbesmagazine'slist of billionaires. Lebanese worth more than $1 million own at least 48 percent of the country's wealth (see chart above). This figure, however, is a minimum estimate. It also implies that the rest of the country owns less than 52 percent of private wealth, valued at some $91 billion.The richest Lebanese are its six billionaires, all from the Mikati and Hariri families. According toForbes, their combined worth is $14 billion some 15 percent of all private wealth.

Wealth inequality (higher = less equal) Russia Lebanon, US, Egypt, Saudi, Israel, UAE, France, Palestine, The concentration of cash in a few hands skews other figures as well. According to the report, a Lebanese adult's wealth averages $30,868. However, the median wealth is just $6,076 meaning, counterintuitively, that half of Lebanese adults own less than a fifth the average wealth. Furthermore, a full two-thirds own less than $10,000, while most of the rest (almost 30 percent) are worth less than $100,000.Unfortunately, while these figures provide a rough guide to the nation's wealth distribution, the numbers cannot be trusted completely. Credit Suisse rates the quality of Lebanon's data as "poor".

FROM AL-AKHBAR (http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/global-wealth-distribution-shows-growing-inequality?By:Hassan ChakraniPublishedFriday, October 18, 2013 Thedeathsof over a dozen Lebanese asylum seekers late September 2013, as they tried to cross from Indonesia to Australia, sent a shock throughout Lebanese society. But it should not be much of a surprise given that those making this dangerous journey were from one of the most neglected areas in Lebanon, theAkkarregion in the north of the country.Also, as the Credit SuissesGlobal Wealth Report2013 shows, Australia ranks at the top of world with a median wealth per adult of $233,000, an indicator of the midway point between the richest and poorest. Lebanon may rank among those countries with a median wealth between $25,000 and $100,000, but its national wealth distribution is extremely unequal.A recent study by the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs concluded that the Akkar region is by far the poorest area in the country, while only six Lebanese individuals from only two families have a combined wealth of $14 billion, according to Forbes magazines list of the worlds billionaires.On the global level the picture is not that much different. It is true that the median wealth of all adults across the world is $51,000 the highest yet but when we look at the distribution of this wealth, the numbers are shocking.The Swiss bank report shows, for example, that 3.2 million adults two-thirds of the global adult population are worth $10,000 or less. As for the global middle class, whose wealth is valued between $10,000 and $100,000, they number around one billion only. But the shock comes when the statistics show that 0.7 percent of all adults (32 million people) are worth close to $100 trillion, that is a whopping 41 percent of global wealth.The United States remains the single biggest generator of millionaires in the world, the report indicates, with 42 percent of the global share. Yet it is one of the most unequal in the world, with an extreme concentration of wealth at the top its median adult wealth is only around $45,000, not even making the top 25.This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition 19 2013 : : 2% . . . . . . . 2013 Credit Swiss 233 ( 513 ). 25 ( ) 14 Forbes . . . . . . . () 51 . . 3.2 10 . 10 ( 23%) . ! 0.7% (32 ) 98.7 41% . 2% 1%. . . . . . . . 42% . . . 2.13 . . . . 2013 Gallup . . . ( ) . . : .241 4.9% 241 . 2000. Credit Swiss. ( ) , 10/18/2013 - 13:36 . . .

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