António Guterres, who was reelected for a second term Friday, tweeted that during the pandemic, the world's wealthiest gained $5 trillion, while 120 million people were pushed into extreme poverty. The former figure is a reference to a Forbes report from April, while the later figure was published in a World Bank study in January.
Guterres also urged the Group of 20 industrial and emerging-market nations to extend debt service suspension into 2022, ahead of the countries' finance ministers meeting in two weeks in Venice, Italy. The G-20 is expected to discuss a major reform of the international taxation system being negotiated under the auspices of the OECD.
Nations in the group have already suspended debt service through the end of this year for certain developing countries.
--Editing by Neil Cohen.
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