SL ranks 5th among 10 countries with highest food price inflation: World Bank

Sri Lanka ranked 5th among the 10 countries with the highest food price inflation in the latest World Bank assessment.

According, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Turkey ranked first four countries in the assessment while Iran, Argentina, Suriname, Ethiopia and Moldova ranked behind Sri Lanka.

The World Bank said that record high food prices have triggered a global crisis that will drive millions more into extreme poverty, magnifying hunger and malnutrition, while threatening to erase hard-won gains in development. 

The war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions, and the continued economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic are reversing years of development gains and pushing food prices to all-time highs. 

Rising food prices have a greater impact on people in low- and middle-income countries, since they spend a larger share of their income on food than people in high-income countries. This brief looks at rising food insecurity and World Bank responses to date. 

Domestic food price inflation remains high around the world. Information from between April and July 2022 shows high inflation in almost all low- and middle-income countries; 92.9% of low-income countries, 92.7% of lower-middle-income countries, and 89% of upper-middle-income countries have seen inflation levels above 5%, with many experiencing double-digit inflation. The share of high-income countries with high inflation has also increased sharply, with about 83.3% experiencing high food price inflation.