Mexican mogul Carlos Slim topped the Forbes list of billionaires for the fourth year in a row, while Spanish clothing magnate Amancio Ortega vaulted ahead of U.S. investor Warren Buffett into third place.
Slim, head of a telecommunications empire, is worth $73 billion.
Second place remains in the hands of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with a fortune valued at $67 billion.
Ortega is the person who has increased his fortune the most over the past 12 months, adding $19.5 billion to bring his net worth to $57 billion.
During this period, Ortega, who was in fifth place on last year’s list, raced ahead of Buffett and France’s Bernard Arnault, president of the LVMH group of luxury products.
Forbes noted that while the 76-year-old Ortega left the presidency of Inditex in 2011, he still owns 60 percent of its shares, whose value has climbed 50 percent thanks to the firm’s record profits.
The magazine adds that Ortega also has a $4 billion portfolio of real estate investments acquired at rock-bottom prices during the recent economic crisis.
Among his properties is Madrid’s iconic Picasso Tower office building.
