Campaigners sought to pile pressure on the rich and powerful travelling to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, with a prediction that the wealthiest 1 per cent would soon own more than the rest of the world’s population put together.

The finding, from the charity Oxfam, will add spice to a gathering that is already under pressure to explain the divergent economic outlook for different nations, and among different groups within them. It comes ahead of the release of data from the International Monetary Fund, expected to show that despite a “shot in the arm” from lower oil prices, the outlook for the global economy is unchanged from its forecasts in October.

The wealth inequality prediction extrapolated results from the annual Credit Suisse global wealth report in an effort to focus attention on the “more than a billion people” in the world living in “absolute poverty”, those with incomes of less than $1.25 a day.