The world is on the verge of another bout of food inflation as wars in Iran and Ukraine along with El Nino create a perfect storm of higher costs and lower crop yields, the chief economist of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said.
Food prices were a key driver of the 2022 global inflation surge but have been relatively benign so far this year, even tempering in some places the surge caused by high energy costs.
This calm is likely to be temporary, however, as higher crude oil prices, the loss of fertiliser from the Gulf region, the shortage of diesel in some parts of the world and extreme weather are feeding through to costs and will show up in consumer prices, even if with a delay.
COSTS SEEN ACCELERATING BY YEAR-END, NEXT YEAR
“I expect that commodity prices will start to increase more now … and food prices will start increasing by the end of the…
