About seven trillion U.S. dollars was erased from global stock markets over the past two weeks as global equities tumbled for the worst start to a year.
 
The figure is equivalent to five times that of South Korea’s gross domestic product.
 
Boomberg said that the value of global equities stood at 57-point-six trillion dollars as of Friday, down six-point-nine trillion dollars from the end of last year.
 
China marked the largest drop with 21-point-eight percent, and stock markets of emerging and oil producing countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia also posted significant losses.
 
The world’s 400 richest people lost 305 billion U.S. dollars from their combined net worth this month. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos lost eight-point-nine billion dollars since January 1.