World Bank Warns Over Soaring Food Inflation in Most Developing Countries

World Bank

Food inflation has spiked across most of the developing world as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with several richer countries trapped in a cycle of rising prices, a report by the World Bank has found.

The report said that Moscow’s military campaign against its neighbor would see food bills in many countries rise by more than 1% of their annual national income (GDP), whilst some nations may fail to contain the impact and be plunged into a full-blown debt crisis.

The organization highlighted Lebanon as being particularly badly affected, with a grain store explosion in Beirut two years ago having caused serious damage to the countries ability to store reserves of maize and wheat. Food inflation in Lebanon has hit 332% in the year to June, with the nation forced to import at current record-high prices due to a lack of reserves.

Zimbabwe and Venezuela follow Lebanon with year-on-year price increases of 255% and 155% respectively. Turkey is the fourth hardest-hit country with a food inflation rate of 94%.

A deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations last month has seen Ukraine and Russia reach an agreement for food shipments from Ukrainian ports to resume, which has helped bring commodity prices down.

On Monday, the Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni departed the Ukrainian port of Odesa en route to Lebanon with more than 26,000 tons of corn.