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Carlos Slim passes Bill Gates in rich ranks

04 July 2007 11:06 (UTC +04:00)

The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, the Mexican Stock Exchange, whose index has quintupled in value since 2002, has created vast fortunes for many local businessmen.
Slim’s wealth has soared due to the 26.5-percent surge in his mobile phone operating business America Movil and the 11.3-percent gain in the value of Telmex, Slim’s near-monopoly fixed-line telecom company.
This means he is worth nearly 8 percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product, and 8.6 billion dollars more than Gates.
In April, Forbes magazine listed Slim as the world’s second richest man, with 56 billion dollars, overtaking U.S. investor Warren Buffet for the second place on the world’s wealth billboard, but below Gates, founder of the software giant Microsoft.
Sentido Comun said that Slim’s wealth soared by 10.8 billion dollars in the April to June period alone.
Mexico has a clear rich-poor divide, and the richest Mexicans have personal fortunes worth more than 123 billion dollars while over half of Mexicans live in poverty./APA/