Wealth of Britain’s 157 billionaires now equal to 22% of country’s GDP

One economist said there was ‘a total disconnect between macroeconomic indicators and the reality of income gains for most people’. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The wealth of Britain’s 157 billionaires is now equivalent to more than a fifth of the country’s entire GDP, according to analysis by the Equality Trust – a fivefold increase since 1990.

The charity describes the trend, based on data in this year’s Sunday Times rich list, as Britain’s “ghost GDP”: headline economic growth increasingly disconnected from everyday life.