UN REVEALS WEAKENING NAIRA, RISING FOOD PRICES AFFECTING NIGERIANS

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has reveals that a combination of high food prices and a strong dollar is negatively affecting people in Nigeria and other developing countries.

According to the report, this combination is making many individuals living in these countries make hard choices to make ends meet, such as skipping meals or taking a child out of school.

This was revealed in its report released in December titled: Double Burden: The effects of food price increases and currency depreciations on food import bills.

The report indicated that the price of food has increased everywhere, reaching historic levels in 2022 and has become a challenge for food security globally, but particularly for net food importing developing countries.

Unlike in previous food crises, countries now face a double burden of not only paying higher prices for the food they import, but the price increase is exacerbated by the depreciation of their currency vis-à-vis the US dollar.

The organisation explained that the world had suffered three major food price spikes in the current century. The first two were in 2007-2008 and 2010-2012, with a third one currently because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

It stated that during the first two price spikes, the value of the dollar went down.

In an attempt to combat high inflation in the United States of America, the Federal Reserve increased its interest rates causing the US dollar to appreciate some 24 per cent between May 2021 and October 2022. This made the US dollar and the food that developing countries buy with it more expensive.