The World Bank updated on December 14, 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 61.9% of low-income, 76.1% of lower-middle-income, 50.0% of upper-middle-income and 57.4% of high-income countries having inflation levels exceeding 5%, with some countries reporting double-digit 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 74.0% of the 167 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 food price inflation rate in the world during the October 2022 – October 2023 period (218% annual change in food CPI), trailing Venezuela (281%) and followed by Argentina (154%) and Türkiye (67%). It is worth noting that the data is based on the latest month from August 2023 to November 2023 for which the food component of the CPI and overall CPI data is available. The report provided a list of the top-ten countries in terms of nominal food price inflation as outlined below:

The report mentioned that as of December 11 of the current year, 19 countries have implemented 27 food export bans on major food commodities in order to prevent additional internal food shortages, while 9 have adopted 17 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.