The gulf between the world's richest and poorest people is widening, Oxfam has claimed, with a report by the charity revealing that 42 people hold the same amount of wealth as the 3.7bn people who make up the poorest half of the world’s population.

The report, published to coincide with the first day of the World Economic Forum in Davos – which is often criticised for being little more than a talking shop for the rich and powerful – said that 82pc of the wealth generated last year across the world went to the richest 1pc of the global population, while the 3.7bn poorest citizens saw their wealth "flatline".

Oxfam said it was "unacceptable and unsustainable" for economies to continue to enable a super-rich minority to accumulate vast wealth while hundreds of millions of people struggle to survive on poverty pay.

It called for a rethink of legal and business models that prioritise shareholder returns over broader social impact, highlighting how the "excessive corporate influence on policy-making, erosion of workers' rights and relentless drive to minimise costs in order to maximise returns to investors all contribute to a widening gap between the super-rich and the rest of society".