Food Inflation hits USA & Eastern Europe
Friday, August 31st, 2012 8:29:30 by Fayyaz Yaseen
WASHINGTON, August 30, 2012 – Global food prices soared by 10 percent in July from a month ago, with maize and soybean reaching all-time peaks due to an unprecedented summer of droughts and high temperatures in
both the United States and Eastern Europe, according to the World Bank Group’s latest
Food Price Watch report.
From June to July, maize and wheat rose by 25 percent each, soybeans by 17 percent, and only rice went down, by 4 percent. Overall, the World Bank’s Food Price Index, which tracks the price of internationally traded food commodities,
was 6 percent higher than in July of last year, and 1 percent over the previous peak of February 2011.
“Food prices rose again sharply threatening the health and well-being of millions of people,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.
“Africa and the Middle East are particularly vulnerable, but so are people in other countries where the prices of grains have gone up abruptly.”
Overall, food prices between April and July continued the volatile trend observed during the previous 12 months, which halted the sustained increases between mid-2010 and February 2011. Prices increased in April, came down in May
and June, and sharply increased in July.
Sharp domestic price increases have continued in this quarter, especially in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, experienced the highest price increases in maize, including 113 percent in Mozambique. Meanwhile, the Sahel
and eastern Africa regions experienced steep price increases of sorghum: 220 percent in South Sudan, and 180 percent in Sudan, for instance.
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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen
on Aug 31 2012. Filed under USA, World.
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