In Spain, the government has been warning about this for a few weeks and on a global level it has just been confirmed by the World Bank. Commodity prices will fall this year at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic, but this will not be reflected in food. The World Bank’s ‘Commodity Markets Outlook’ report, published on Thursday, shows that the cost of raw materials will fall by 21% compared to last year, while the price of energy will fall by 26% and that of oil by 16%. dollars per barrel. This situation “damages the growth prospects of developing countries that depend on their exports to grow,” the agency laments. Another example is that of fertilizers, the price of which will fall by 37% this year compared to last year, the largest annual decline in 50 years. But the worst part is that this situation will not mean that the prices paid by the end customer will fall at the same rate, since according to their forecasts, food will fall by 8% in 2023 compared to the maximums reached in 2022 and will register the second highest figure worldwide high since 1975. Inflation for the month of February stands at 20% global average, the highest figure in the last 20 years. “Rising food and energy prices have been overcome thanks to slowing economic growth, a redistribution of commodity trade and a mild winter,” said World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill. At the national level, Minister Luis Planas reiterated his confidence that food prices will fall as production costs fall, although he acknowledged that this slowdown will be “less rapid” than expected. “France and Spain are below the European average for food price inflation. This does not mean that we are happy with this situation, on the contrary, we think it is necessary to lower prices. The Spanish food chain is very complex and long, so unfortunately prices will fall less quickly than we would like. But we are convinced that if production costs fall, food prices will also fall,” the minister said at the press conference after the meeting in Paris with his French colleague Marc Fesneau.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
