Food price inflation rocks the Middle East’s economies, pushing up risk of social unrest

Food price inflation rocks the Middle East’s economies, pushing up risk of social unrest

Rising prices of food and energy are reverberating through Middle Eastern and North African economies, a new S&P Global Ratings report shows, as Russia's war in Ukraine accelerates inflation, pushing basic living costs higher for millions of people. "What history has shown us, during times when food especially is running through this persistently inflationary period, we do get these strikes and social unrest," Satyam Panday, chief economist at S&P Global Ratings told CNBC's Dan Murphy this week. "Especially when you have higher youth unemployment rates, and coming out of Covid, when the recovery is still fragile, we are facing this kind of situation where, yes, the probability of social unrest is ticking up," he warned. Analysis from S&P Global Ratings found that among MENA countries, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia will be hit the hardest by economic repercussions from the Ukraine war, which has seen Russia block Ukrainian ports vital to delivering agricultural exports to much of the developing world. Russia's financing mechanisms for its food exports have also been constricted as a result of Western sanctions over its invasion of its neighbor. Net imports of food and energy in the MENA countries listed above constitute between 4% and