The World Bank
Home • Site Map • Index • FAQs • Contact Us
Food Prices, Still Near Record High, Continue to Burden World's PoorestGlobal prices of food in July 2011 remain significantly higher than in July 2010 and close to 2008 peak levels, with the World Bank Food Price Index increasing by 33 percent in the last year. In addition, global stocks still remain alarmingly low, so that even small shortfalls in yields can have amplified price effects. Domestic food prices also continue to fluctuate widely, with hard-to-predict variations among individual markets and products. For example, maize prices have risen more than 100 percent in some markets since last year, while dropping as much as 19 percent elsewhere. 
In the Horn of Africa, more than 12 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Prices of the two major commodities, red sorghum and white maize, have increased 30 percent to 240 percent in Somalia and now exceed peak levels from 2008. However, the causes of famine in the region are multiple and protracted, including not only food price increases but also devastating drought, conflict, civil unrest, and displacement. Those worst affected include poor farmers, agro-pastoral communities and the displaced, the latter group comprising about 2.3 million people. Even where famine has not taken hold, different segments of a country's population are affected differently by food price increases. Research supports the idea that short-term measures can help offset the poverty impact of price fluctuations, even dramatically. But ultimately, governments must balance all applicable social, political and climatic factors to craft integrated policies that protect the most vulnerable over the long term. |
Related Content
Contact Us |
You are here: 
World Bank Poverty Food Price Watch - August 2011
Site Map | Index | FAQs | Contact Us | Search | API | 
RSS
© 2016
The World Bank Group, All Rights Reserved. Legal.