Gap between rich and poor increased says Unilever CEO Alan Jope

Unilever CEO Alan Jope says that the gap between rich and poor has increased, he talks about the income disparity increased in many countries due to covid pandemic.

Covid Pandemic has crippled the best economies of the world and has caused the disparity between the rich and the poor across the world. In this regard, Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever International, stated on Tuesday, 20 September 2022,   that the worldwide coronavirus epidemic worsened wealth disparity both inside and across nations. However, he emphasised that despite improvements in income disparity between nations over the last 25 years, the gap between the affluent and the poor continues to be intolerably enormous. Enterprises cannot flourish in shattered and split communities, according to Jope, thus businesses must do their share to alleviate the problem.

Jope stated in a video message at the FICCI LEADS 2022 event that the gap between the richest and poorest countries in the world remains unacceptable despite the fact that income inequality has largely decreased over the last 25 years, largely due to the fact that hundreds of millions of Asian families have been lifted out of poverty, as reported by PTI.

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He stressed the current situation of the world where the pandemic had made things worse for the developing countries and the people are suffering due to a lack of jobs. This has caused an unprecedented rise in the gap between rich and poor. Jope asserts that roughly three-quarters of the world’s population now resides in nations where wealth disparity has increased recently and adds that the epidemic has only made matters worse. He referenced IMF data that indicated that COVID-19 had caused the acute poverty of nearly 120 million people.

The covid pandemic caused inflationary pressures in many countries and they are likely to amplify the economic disparities between the people. Jope added that businesses can not thrive in states that are suffering through such hardships. He further stated that everyone working for Unilever gets a proper wage that they can live by and ensures that all those who are providing service for the company in any manner will receive such wages. He stated that the focus has shifted to an extended value chain.