The World Bank has warned that the depreciating value of the Nigerian naira and currencies of most developing economies are driving up food and fuel prices in ways that could deepen the food and energy crises that many of them already face.
According to The PUNCH, the Washington-based bank estimates that in roughly 90% of these economies, the spike in wheat prices in local currencies was greater than the rise in U.S. dollars.
It said elevated prices of energy commodities that served as inputs to agricultural production have been driving up food prices.
“During the first three quarters of 2022, studies by the World Bank Group showed that food-price inflation in South Asia averaged more than 20 per cent.
“Food price inflation in other regions, including Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, averaged between 12 and 15 per cent,” the apex bank said.
