The founder of the Spanish textile concern Inditex and the Zara brand Amancio Ortega became the richest man in the world, pushing Microsoft's founder Bill Gates to second place, Forbes Magazine has said.

In their estimation, Ortega's wealth is USD 85 billion, or USD 200 million more than Gates' wealth. The owner of Inditex first topped the magazine's rating in October 2015, but stayed on the top for just one day, leaving leadership back to Gates. Such swap between the two happened also in September 2016, because the position of the rich is determined by the fluctuations of the exchange rates of their shares.

For the past few months, Bill Gates, was sometimes on top of Forbes' list, and was sometimes behind the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos. The state of Bezos last month dropped by USD 4 billion and Gates by USD 4.6 billion. The reason for Gates' "impoverishment" was the announcement that he had decided to transfer to his charity fund unpaid shares worth USD 4.6 billion.
In April, Forbes published a list of the richest people on the planet, with 2043 people. This is 13% more than last year. The overall status of participants in the rankings amounted to USD 7.67 trillion, 18% up from last year.