Lakshmi Mittal drops out of Forbes' top ten rich list for first time

London, Mar 8(ANI): Indian-origin steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has slipped to the 20th position on the Forbes list of the world's exclusive billionaires' club with a 20.7 billion dollar wealth, after losing 10.4 billion dollars in the past year.

He has dropped out of the top 10 rich list for the first time since 2004 after suffering the biggest fortune loss of anyone in the world, The Telegraph reports.

Mexican telecoms chief Carlos Slim Helu, 72, has emerged world's richest man for the third time despite a decline in his fortune from 74 billion dollars to 69 billion dollars.

He is followed by the Microsoft owner Bill Gates and American tycoon Warren Buffett, possessing 61 billion dollars and 44 billion dollars respectively.

JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter has been excluded from the world's exclusive billionaires' club due to Britain's high tax regime.

She was touted as one of the world's richest women in 2011 but her fortunes depleted to such an extent that she is no longer a dollar billionaire, which implies that she has less than 640 million pounds in her bank accounts.

The decline in the spending power of Britain's rich emerged as the global number of billionaires rose to 1,226, and their combined wealth surged to a record 4.6 trillion dollars, despite the impact of the world economic crisis. (ANI)