The crisis has passed by the super-rich in Portugal who have seen their assets increase despite the country’s impoverishment due to a series of tax rises and austerity measures.
The Leona Helmsley truism, “only the little people pay taxes” may be true as tax-efficient schemes and the relocation of head offices to fiscally friendly Holland has helped many of Portugal's top company's avoid Portugal's repressive fiscal regime.
The three richest Portuguese seem immune to the crisis and saw their fortunes grow during the past three years when the Troika and the government exhorted its citizens to tighten their belts and to expect "a massive tax increase" according to former Finance Mnister, Vitor Gaspar.
Américo Amorim, Alexandre Soares dos Santos and Belmiro de Azevedo started the austerity programme with €6.47 billion between them.
After a period of income cuts for the public sector and pensioners, and swinging tax increases across the board with sharply increased VAT and energy costs, the fortunes of the lucky three rose 19% in the three years to €7.7 billion.
The latest Forbes ranking for 2014 places cork magnate, energy and bank investor Américo Amorim as ' richer than all his tribe' with €3.85 billion in personal wealth.
Amorim climbed 49 positions in the ranking of the richest people on the planet despite his famous comment that he struggles by on a pension like everyone else.
Alexandre Soares dos Santos, the owner of Jerónimo Martins (Pingo Doce supermarkets) is now worth €1.67 billion while many of his customers now are unable to afford basic foodstuffs.
Third for Portugal comes Belmiro de Azevedo (Sonae) with a fortune of €1.8 billion, up from €1.1 billion in 2011.
Bill Gates again is the richest man in the world with USD76 billion having knocked the Mexican Carlos Slim off the number one spot.
