The fortunes of a number of the world's richest businessmen and women have declined, with demand for luxury goods and beauty products declining. This decline removed Bernard Arnault, founder of LVMH, from the top spot in the Bloomberg Index of the World's Richest People. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, heiress to the giant cosmetics company L'Oreal, briefly lost this month her title as the richest woman in the world to Alicia Walton, a member of the founding family of the American retailer Wal-Mart.
Overall, the fortunes of about six of the wealthy who derive their wealth from luxury products have fallen by 5 percent this year, according to the index. The fortunes of the rest of the list of the world's 500 richest people rose by 13 percent.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net Website, Edited)
