The World’s Richest Person Has Changed. Who Is It Now?

The richest man in the world has changed.

That is, Spanish clothes tycoon Amancio Ortega has overtaken Bill Gates.

The elusive multi-billionaire, who founded European clothes giant Zara, is the wealthiest person on the planet.

He is worth a staggering £51.84bn, which translates as $79.8bn or €71.83bn, according to Forbes’ real-time tracker.

He isn’t as big a household name as Microsoft boss Gates but he has quietly climbed the rich ladder, in recent years.

And Ortega has a rags-to-riches story. He was born in 1936 in the Spanish civil war and his dad earned a meagre monthly salary of 300 pesetas.

His biographer explained how they couldn’t afford food, so he was forced to leave school in his early teens to make money.

When he was 40, he set up Zara, which has grown from Spain, to Portugal, France and London. Now it’s a global success.

Reportedly, he became 5.3% richer – piling up another $4bn – just in the last 24 hours. This was partly due to a surge in Inditex shares, the parent company owning Zara.

Nice work. Not too shabby at all for someone who began his career as a messenger boy.