By 1990 that figure had risen to $1 trillion.
New data shows that in North America alone, women currently control approximately $18 trillion in wealth, and if they gave just 1.7% of that amount, it would add up to $230 billion in philanthropic dollars.
Thanks largely to oil and gas (Qatar's natural gas reserves of some 34 trillion cubic metres are the third largest in the world, and it still has 25bn barrels of oil), the tiny Gulf state of 2.2m people has become arguably the richest country in the world, topping the world rankings of GDP per capita.
The issue is no longer whether the problem exists – it undeniably does, with health, economic, and development consequences – but instead what strategies are advocated to prevent the 35 million lives lost each year to NCDs, and the $47 trillion in costs projected by 2030.
In Europe, an extraordinary €2 trillion of government bonds from "safe haven" countries, such as Germany, even have a negative yield – meaning, in effect, that investors are paying governments for the privilege of lending to them.
But although the news caused the pound to fall 0.5% against the dollar to $1.64, the FTSE 100 saw its 10th straight day of gains, ending up 16.8 points, or 0.4%, at 4,577.
Extending these figures to a global scale, it is possible that women could have the capacity to give $1 trillion annually by 2026.
However several continued to lament the country's $18 trillion national debt, with Perry arguing that the US needed "major economic and fiscal reforms".
He argues for politicians to make the economic case for action and points out that the low-carbon market is worth up to £3.2 trillion and forecast to grow by 4% annually.
A new study just published in the journal Science has calculate that ice shelves in the Antarctic are melting from beneath, losing 1.3 trillion kilograms of ice a year.
But the summit did succeed in getting things done, including a $1 trillion injection of funds that at least helped stabilise the global economy's rate of descent, and kept protectionism at bay.
