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NEW YORK – Warren Buffett, the chairman Berkshire Hathaway Inc has overtaken Bill Gates as the world’s richest man, according to Forbes annual billionaire’s list.

Forbes announced that Buffett’s wealth increased from $52 billion to about $62 billion in the last twelve months, mostly from a gain in his company’s shares.

The Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates, who held the top position continuously for last 13 years, was dropped to No. 3 behind Buffet and the Mexican based telecommunications businessman Carlos Slim, whose wealth has almost doubled just with in two years. The net worth of Carlos is estimated to have $60 billion, while Gates is now said to be worth $58 billion.

“He is the smartest and intelligent investor of his generation,” said Ken Murray, who administers the Blue Planet Investment Management in Edinburgh. “The incredible amount of wealth he has accumulated puts him up there with Carnegie and Morgan.”

Buffett claimed in 2006 that he was giving a major portion of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“The most amazing thing about Buffet is that he had attained the No 1 position even while he was giving away his major portion of wealth to charity” said Steve Forbes, the Chief Editor of the magazine.

“Last year was an astonishing one around the world in terms of the global economy and it’s reflected on this list,” said Forbes. “The reason for this upsurge in wealth is that we’re in the midst of a phenomenal global gloom,” he added. The total number of billionaires in the world had almost doubled in the past four years.

Forbes’s list shows that wealth is expanding in developing economies around the world. Out of newcomers 70 percent are from India, Russia, China and the U.S. There were only four Americans and surprisingly Buffett and Gates were the only Americans in the top 10 list.

By nationality, the U.S still leads the race with 469 billionaires from 415 last year. Russia overtakes Germany to the second place with 87 billionaires followed by India with 53 billionaires of which four of them in the top 10.

The biggest losers of this year include Howard Schultz, the chief of Starbucks, whose shares dropped him off the list all together, and Spanish property billionaire Enrique Banuelos, whose wealth fall from 7.7 billion dollars to 1.3 billion.

Liliane Bettencourt ((France), of L’Oreal Cosmetics Company is the richest woman in the world with a net worth of 22.9 billion dollars.

“Most of the countries have benefited from the currency fluctuations,” said Luisa Kroll Forbes senior editor.

Indian steel entrepreneur Lakshmi Mittal was the fourth richest followed by Mukesh and Anil Ambani in the fifth and sixth position. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea was the seventh richest with $31 billion. The Indian based property developer DLF Ltd head Kushal Pal Singh was in the eighth position with $30 billion.

The youngest member on the list was Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, aged 23, has a net worth of $1.5 billion. He is also the youngest self-made billionaire ever to make a Forbes list.

Relevant Links:

• Gates No Longer World’s Richest Man
• http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/06/money.forbes/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

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