Our featured chart this week shows that groceries are getting more expensive worldwide, with food costs jumping to a record high last month.
The World Bank’s Food Price Index, a measure of global food prices, climbed 5.68% from last month and 21.01% from a year earlier. The index tracks the global price of cereal, vegetable oil and meal, and other food prices. Much of the recent gains have come from vegetable oils such as palm, which is used in about half of all supermarket goods.
Global food costs were already rising rapidly before Russia invaded Ukraine two weeks ago, which then sent global crop trading into a frenzy. According to Bloomberg, Russia and Ukraine together account for about a quarter of all wheat and barley shipments, a fifth of corn, and the majority of all sunflower oil supply.
With grocery bills going up around the world, it could get especially painful for the millions of people who live in countries where food insecurity is a real problem and where groceries make up a large chunk of consumer budgets.
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