According to a report released by United Nations Development Program, at least 71 million more people around the world experienced poverty as a result of higher food and energy prices that climbed in the weeks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on the availability of grains from the Black Sea region.
Inflation is on the rise across the world and many households are struggling to subsist. In low-income countries, according to World Bank, families, today, spend over 40 per cent of their household incomes on food.
The Russian-Ukraine expansionist war has had far-reaching economic effects mostly on grain-importing countries like Kenya, for example. The International Monetary Fund estimates that global inflation will peak at 9.5 per cent this year, but in developing countries inflation is much higher.
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IMF notes that: “The cost-of-living crisis, tightening financial conditions in most regions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic all weigh heavily on the outlook. Global growth is forecast to slow from 6.0 per cent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022 and 2.7 percent in 2023. This is the weakest growth profile since 2001 except for the global financial crisis and the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Global inflation is forecast to rise from 4.7 percent in 2021 to 8.8 percent in 2022 but to decline to 6.5 percent in 2023 and to 4.1 percent by 2024. In Somalia, drought and conflict have forced 1 million people to flee their homes.”
Equally, The United Nations reports that at least half a million children are at risk of death due to malnutrition or famine. The World is experiencing the highest level of drought ever witnessed. Exerts have warned that thus could have serious impact the global climate.
