The Forbes list, published every year and naming the wealthiest in the world, sees a re-positioning of some names from the gem and jewellery industry for the list of 2009. The 2009 listing includes 793 billionaires, while in 2008, there were 1,125 billionaires. What is also different this year is that the average net worth of these billionaires has reduced over last year by almost 23 percent.

Warren Buffett featured at No.2, with $37 billion as net worth, after having lost $25 billion last year. At No.15 was LVMH executive Bernard Arnault with net worth of $16.5 billion. He was noted as the richest in France, but had to face loses worth $9 billion last year. Further at rank 60 was Francois Pinault from luxury goods retailer PPR with a net worth of $7.6 billion. At rank 68 was the founder of Amazon.com - Jeffrey Bezos, with net worth of $6.8 billion. Nicky Oppenheimer was at No. 98, with a net worth of $5 billion, moving up from his rank of 173 last year. Running almost half way through the listing is Laurence Graff at No.305 for 2009, with a net worth of $2.2 billion, up from his ranking at 462 in 2008 and a net worth of $2.5 billion.

At rank 334 is Beny Steinmetz with a net worth of $2 billion. Lev Leviev came in at No.468, with a net worth of $1.5 billion, while last year he was at No.227, with a net worth of $4.5 billion.

The No.1 ranking was occupied by Bill Gates with a net worth of $40 billion. The Waltons- founders of Wal Mart were on Nos.11 and 12. Those in the list from the United States made up for 44 percent of the wealth, which has shown an increase of 7 percent over the previous year.