Accelerating food price inflation heightens food insecurity

BUSINESS

Higher food price inflation deepens the crisis for countries already facing food insecurity and shortages, with poor households feeling the disproportional effects, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which this week said the price of food had steadily increased in sub-Saharan Africa since 2019.

“Food inflation increased throughout 2019, on average, across 20 countries in the region where monthly food price data are available. After remaining stable at around 9% (year-on-year) since the beginning of the pandemic, food inflation started to rise again from April this year, to some 11% in October,” said Seung Mo Choi, the senior economist working on regional surveillance in the IMF’s African department.