The World Bank updated on September 29, 2022 its’ “Food Security Update” report in which it provides a glimpse on the year-on-year change in the food component of a country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). In details, the report revealed that food price inflation remains elevated across all countries’ income categories, with 88.2% of low-income, 91.1% of lower-middle-income and 93.0% of upper-middle-income countries having inflation levels exceeding 5%, with some countries reporting double-digit inflation. The report added that 82.1% of high-income countries with high inflation rates experienced elevated food price inflation. In addition, the report mentioned that the most affected countries by high food price inflation are located in Africa, North America, Latin America, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia. The World Bank noted that real food price inflation has exceeded real overall inflation in 83.3% of the 156 countries for which both food CPI and overall CPI indexes are available. Country-wise, the World Bank commented that Lebanon recorded the second highest nominal inflation rate in the world during the first eight months of 2022 (198% annual change in food CPI), only preceded by Zimbabwe (353%) and followed by Venezuela (131%), and Türkiye (89%). In real terms, Zimbabwe’s annual change in food inflation stood at 68% in the first eight months of 2022, trailed by Lebanon (36%), Iran (32%) and Sri Lanka (22%), only to name a few. The report provided a list of the top-ten countries in terms of nominal and real food price inflation as outlined below:

From another perspective, the World Bank mentioned that food prices in the MENA region have recently stabilized as evidenced in Jordan (3.7% increase in food prices in July), Saudi Arabia (2.7% increase). On the other hand, the report noted that food prices in Egypt and Lebanon remained high in August 2022, increasing by 24.3% and 20.8% y-o-y on a respective basis. In parallel, the report mentioned that 20 countries have implemented 29 food export bans on major food commodities in order to prevent additional internal food shortages, while 7 other countries have adopted 12 export-limiting measures. Lebanon has implemented on March 18, 2022 export bans on processed fruits & vegetables, milled grain products, sugar and bread spanning until end of year 2022 in addition to placing a permanent export ban on March 11 on meat products, fish, potatoes, among others.