The World Bank updated on April 20, 2023 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 70.6% of low-income, 90.9% of lower-middle-income and 87.0% of upper-middle-income countries having inflation levels exceeding 5%, with some countries reporting double-digit inflation. The report added that 84.2% 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 were located in Africa, North America, Latin America, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia. The World Bank noted that real food price inflation (which is defined as nominal food inflation minus overall inflation) has exceeded real overall inflation in 86.5% of the 163 countries for which both food CPI and overall CPI indexes are available. Country-wise, the World Bank commented that Lebanon recorded the highest nominal food price inflation rate in the world during the February 2022 – February 2023 period (261% annual change in food CPI), followed by Zimbabwe (128%). In real terms, Lebanon’s annual change in food inflation stood at 71%, trailed by Zimbabwe (40%), Rwanda (32%) and Egypt (30%). It is worth noting that the data is based on the latest month from December 2022 to March 2023 for which the food component of the CPI and overall CPI data are available. The report provided a list of the top-ten countries in terms of nominal and real food price inflation as outlined below:

The World Bank stated that the economic situation in Lebanon is continuing to deteriorate rapidly, with the Lebanese Pound hovering around the LBP 100,000 per USD mark which represents a 98% loss in value since the beginning of the crisis in late 2019. In addition, the World Bank noted that according to the World Food Programme (WFP), food inflation in Lebanon has contributed to 40% of the monthly Consumer Price Index increase in January 2023. Furthermore, the WFP estimated that as the economic crisis continues and food prices sustain their upturn, food insecurity will likely affect some 1.46 million Lebanese and 0.80 million refugees by April 2023. From another perspective, the report mentioned that as of March 13, 23 countries have implemented 29 food export bans on major food commodities in order to prevent additional internal food shortages, while 10 have adopted 14 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 2023 in addition to placing an export ban on March 11, 2022 on meat products, fish and potatoes, among others which will span until end of 2023.