Staple Food Prices in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Empirical Assessment

Staple Food Prices in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Empirical Assessment
Author: Cedric Okou
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2022-07-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

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This paper analyzes the domestic and external drivers of local staple food prices in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data on domestic market prices of the five most consumed staple foods from 15 countries, this paper finds that external factors drive food price inflation, but domestic factors can mitigate these vulnerabilities. On the external side, our estimations show that Sub-Saharan African countries are highly vulnerable to global food prices, with the pass-through from global to local food prices estimated close to unity for highly imported staples. On the domestic side, staple food price inflation is lower in countries with greater local production and among products with lower consumption shares. Additionally, adverse shocks such as natural disasters and wars bring 1.8 and 4 percent staple food price surges respectively beyond generalized price increases. Economic policy can lower food price inflation, as the strength of monetary policy and fiscal frameworks, the overall economic environment, and transport constraints in geographically challenged areas account for substantial cross-country differences in staple food prices.

Rising Food Prices in Sub-Saharan Africa

Rising Food Prices in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Quentin T. Wodon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 28
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

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The increase in food prices represents a major crisis for the world's poor. This paper aims to review the evidence on the potential impact of higher food prices on poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and examines the extent to which policy responses will benefit the poor. The paper shows that rising food prices are likely to lead to higher poverty in sub-Saharan Africa as the negative impact on net poor consumers outweighs the benefits to poor producers. A recent survey shows that the most common policy response in sub-Saharan African countries is reducing taxes on food while outside the region price controls or targeted consumer subsidies are the most popular measure. Sub-Saharan African countries also have a higher prevalence of food-based safety net programs which are being scaled up to respond to rising prices. The review suggests that the benefits from reducing import tariffs on staples may accrue largely to the non-poor. Social protection programs show more promise, but geographic targeting is likely to be crucial in ensuring that benefits reach the neediest. The paper also argues that anti-poverty interventions ought to retain their focus on rural areas where poverty remains highest even after taking into account the adverse impact on the urban poor due to the rise in food prices.

Rising Food Prices in Sub-Saharan Africa

Rising Food Prices in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Quentin Wodon
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

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The increase in food prices represents a major crisis for the world's poor. This paper aims to review the evidence on the potential impact of higher food prices on poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and examines the extent to which policy responses will benefit the poor. The paper shows that rising food prices are likely to lead to higher poverty in sub-Saharan Africa as the negative impact on net poor consumers outweighs the benefits to poor producers. A recent survey shows that the most common policy response in sub-Saharan African countries is reducing taxes on food while outside the region price controls or targeted consumer subsidies are the most popular measure. Sub-Saharan African countries also have a higher prevalence of food-based safety net programs which are being scaled up to respond to rising prices. The review suggests that the benefits from reducing import tariffs on staples may accrue largely to the non-poor. Social protection programs show more promise, but geographic targeting is likely to be crucial in ensuring that benefits reach the neediest. The paper also argues that anti-poverty interventions ought to retain their focus on rural areas where poverty remains highest even after taking into account the adverse impact on the urban poor due to the rise in food prices.

Food Inflation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Food Inflation in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Mr.Emre Alper
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2017-01-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 147556824X

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This paper analyzes food inflation trends in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from 2000 to 2016 using two novel datasets of disaggregated CPI baskets. Average food inflation is higher, more volatile, and similarly persistent as non-food non-fuel (NF/NF) inflation, especially in low-income countries (LICs) in SSA. We find evidence that food inflation became less persistent from 2009 onwards, related to recent improvements in monetary policy frameworks. We also find that high food prices are driven mainly by non-tradable food in SSA and there is incomplete pass-through from world food and fuel prices and exchange rates to domestic food prices. Taken together, these finding suggest that central banks in low-income countries with high and persistent food inflation should continue to pay attention to headline inflation to anchor inflation expectations. Other policy levers include reducing tariffs and improving storage and transport infrastructure to reduce food pressures.

The Food and Financial Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa Origins, Impacts and Policy Implications

The Food and Financial Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa Origins, Impacts and Policy Implications
Author: M. B. Ndulo
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2011
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 9781845939144

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Dramatic increases in food prices, as witnessed on a global scale in recent years, threaten the food security of hundreds of millions of the rural poor in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. This book focuses on recent food and financial crises as they have affected Africa, illustrating the problems using country case studies, that cover their origins, effects on agriculture and rural poverty, their underlying factors and making recommendations as to how such crises could best be addressed in the future.

Food Security and Policy Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Food Security and Policy Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Johannes Paulus Maria Sijm
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Total Pages: 772
Release: 1997
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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Discusses the incidence and causes of national and household food insecurity, and analyses how policy interventions have affected food security.

Climate Change and Chronic Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Climate Change and Chronic Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Diogo Miguel Salgado Baptista
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2022-09-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

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Climate change is intensifying food insecurity across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with lasting adverse macroeconomic effects, especially on economic growth and poverty. Successive shocks from the war in Ukraine and COVID-19 pandemic have increased food prices and depressed incomes, raising the number of people suffering from high malnutrition and unable to meet basic food consumption needs by at least 30 percent to 123 million in 2022 or 12 percent of SSA’s population. Addressing the lack of resilience to climate change—that critically underlies food insecurity in SSA—will require careful policy prioritization against a backdrop of financing and capacity constraints. This paper presents some key considerations and examples of tradeoffs and complementarities across policies to address food insecurity. Key findings include (1) Fiscal policies focused on social assistance and efficient public infrastructure investment can improve poorer households’ access to affordable food, facilitate expansion of climate-resilient and green agricultural production, and support quicker recovery from adverse climate events; (2) Improving access to finance is key to stepping up private investment in agricultural resilience and productivity as well as improving the earning capacity and food purchasing power of poorer rural and urban households; and (3) Greater regional trade integration, complemented with resilient transport infrastructure, enables sales of one country’s bumper harvests to its neighbors’ facing shortages. The international community can help with financial assistance—especially for the above-mentioned social assistance and key infrastructure areas—capacity development, and facilitating transfers of technology and know-how.

Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Stephen Devereux
Publisher: ITDG Publishing
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2001
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

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Most contributions reflect an evolution of thinking during the 1990s.