Income inequality has been on the rise in most countries, including India, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said.

Ms Lagarde said that 70 per cent of the world's total population (7 out of every ten people in the world) today lives in countries where financial inequality has increased over the past 30 years.

Speaking on the topic, she said, "We are all keenly aware that income inequality has been rising in most countries. In India, the net worth of the billionaire community increased 12-fold in 15 years, enough to eliminate absolute poverty in this country twice over."

Ms Lagarde said the richest 85 people in the world own the same amount of wealth as the lower 50 per cent of the world's total population.

According to the IMF's estimate, income inequality in the United States has returned to the level where it was before the Great Depression. While the richest 1 per cent people in the United States pocketed 95 per cent of total income gains since 2009, the bottom 90 per cent became poorer.

Issuing the warning over rising income inequality around the globe, she stressed that ongoing competition between countries to decrease corporation tax rates was only intensifying the problem. She expressed her views while delivering the Richard Dimbleby Lecture in London.