Washington Robert Zoellick, said these "high and volatile prices," foods are "the greatest threat to the poor around the world and the solution to this crisis can not wait.
"Time is on our side," we must run fast to stop this problem "if we lose a generation," the U.S. official said while attending the spring meetings of IMF and World Bank, carried this week.
The upward trend in food has been accelerated in turn by rising fuel costs following the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, World Bank warned in a report by Zoellick.
The food prices' are 36% higher than a year ago and still unstable, so that push people into deeper poverty, "according to World Bank figures.
"There are more poor people hurting and they could fall into poverty due to rising and volatile prices of food," said Zoellick. "We must give priority to food and protect the poor and vulnerable who spend most of their money on food," he added.
According to this organization, an additional 10% increase in international food prices could lead below the extreme poverty line (defined as those living on under $ 1.25 per day) for another 10 million people.
"A rise of 30% in those prices could generate 34 million more poor people. This is in addition to the 44 million people are living in poverty since last June as a result of price hikes. The World Bank estimates that the number of people living below the poverty line of $ 1.25 a day to be approximately 1.2 billion, "the report said.
The main foods highest increases over a year ago and exceeding the average rate include maize (74%) and wheat (69%), while soybeans recorded a 36% and sugar (21%) and rice prices have remained stable.
These products certainly top the list of food imports from Venezuela, which analysts said could lose this way much of the additional revenue which gives the oil price rises.
"In many countries, vegetables, meat, fruits and edible oil continued to rise, which could result in adverse consequences of poor nutrition," says the WB.
explained that the steep rise in prices is also due to the severe weather events in countries that are major exporters of cereals, export restrictions, the increased use of crops for the production of biofuels, and the lack of reservations worldwide.
Rising food prices is also linked to the sharp rise in fuel prices and a rise of 21% of oil in the first quarter of 2011 due to turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.
poorest countries in the inflation of food prices has been greater than in higher income economies.
To reduce the impact of this table, the agency should develop social assistance programs and nutrition specifically targeted to the poor, eliminate restrictions on the export of grain and reduce the obligations to the biofuel production when food prices exceed a certain threshold.
is also necessary to expand the capacity of countries to manage volatility through financial market instruments, invest more in agriculture, adopt new technologies and further efforts to climate change.
(From The World Economy and Business)
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