Food prices soaring in developing world amid Ukraine crisis, World Bank finds

Food prices soaring in developing world amid Ukraine crisis, World Bank finds

Food inflation has soared across much of the developing world following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has trapped several richer countries in a cycle of rising prices, a report by the World Bank has found.

The Washington-based development organisation said the war in eastern Europe would hit many countries with an increase in food bills worth more than 1% of their annual national income (GDP) while others would fail to contain the impact and be plunged into a full blown debt crisis.

Lebanon was the worst hit, the World Bank said, after a food grain store explosion in Beirut two years ago crippled the Mediterranean country’s ability to hold and distribute maize and wheat to its 6.8 million people.