In September 2022, the year-on-year consumer inflation rate for food was 66 per cent in Sri Lanka, 36 per cent in Pakistan, and about 8 per cent in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The inflation in Pakistan and Sri Lanka is attributed mainly to macroeconomic instability and mismanagement, especially the sharp devaluation of their currencies, and the fertilizer ban in Sri Lanka, according to the 2023 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR) of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) launched on Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The IFPRI's South Asia Regional Office launched the event in partnership with the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), according to an IFPRI press release.
In 2022, the world faced multiple crises that disrupted the global food system and added to the rising numbers of hungry and displaced people. These include the protracted Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters, civil unrest and political instability, growing impacts of climate change and the global repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine war.
This article was originally published in The Observer on June 20, 2023.