The magnate of the Spanish textile industry, Amancio Ortega, has replaced Mexico’s Carlos Slim in second place on the list of the world’s richest people prepared by Forbes magazine in the United States.
The annual list the magazine has published for the last 20 years continues to be headed by Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, with a fortune Forbes estimates at some $75 billion.
The magazine reports that Ortega, best known for the chain of Zara clothing stores, increased his assets by some $2.5 billion since the 2015 list was published, so that today he is worth some $67 billion.
U.S. investor Warren Buffet hangs onto third place, with a fortune estimated at approximately $60.8 billion, followed by Slim, who dropped two places since last year to about $50 billion.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos climbed 10 places this year to take fifth place, as his fortune grew to $45.2 billion.
The list includes 1,810 individuals with assets worth more than $1 billion and an average of some $3.58 billion, based on figures available at the end of the day last Feb. 12.
Altogether their fortunes add up to $6.48 trillion.
