Food price inflation concerns will persist despite wheat, rice falls

FOOD-PRICE inflation concerns for policy makers are set to persist even as rice declines and wheat trades below this year’s peak, according to the United Nations, which said that importers are still paying more than a year ago.

Another year of bumper wheat and rice harvests, as well as a continued surplus in corn, is needed to bring stockpiles back to “healthy” levels and reduce inflation concerns, Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said in Singapore.

Costlier food may worsen the lives of the 1.1 billion people who the World Bank says live on less than $1 a day, adding to pressure on central banks to raise interest rates even amid increased concerns that the global economy may slip back into recession. Global food prices reached a record in February.