Elon Musk briefly lost his spot as the world’s richest person on Wednesday according to Forbes, having been overtaken by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (EPA:MC)’s (LVMH) chief executive and part-owner Bernard Arnault.
While Musk quickly regained the spot, Bernard Arnault’s assent to the top of list comes amid signs of reliance within the luxury goods market against a downshift in the global economy.
LVMH, with over 5,500 stores is benefitting from a market that is far sturdier than in the financial crisis of 2008-9, said consultancy Bain.
Alongside this, China scrapping parts of its zero-Covid policy could even see a resurgence in the luxury goods market, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Deborah Aitken.
Commenting in November, Aitken suggested: “Chinese shoppers’ 35% pre-pandemic share of the luxury goods market may be quickly rebuilt,” once the country has fully reopened.
In an earlier October report, Bain even downplayed the relevance of this, outlining that 95% luxury brands should see positive sales growth this year regardless of how China and other countries recover from Covid lockdowns.
While retailers in other sectors seem to be struggling to cope with a decrease in consumer spending due to a hiked cost of living in many areas, luxury brands look increasingly sturdy.
So while Arnault’s short time as the world’s richest person could be blamed on Musk’s struggles with Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), the positive outlook within the luxury goods market seems an equally reasonable explanation.