The International Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) revealed that the food price index on the international market rose at a high rate of 2.2 percent in December from its level in November, registering an increase for the seventh month in a row. At the level of the past 2020 year, the index recorded its highest level in three years, an increase of 3.1 percent over its level in 2019.
According to the food price index, the value of the food import bill for Arab countries is about 100 billion dollars annually, according to the report of the economic affairs sector of the League of Arab States in May of last year, a 10% increase over its value in 2016, when it was 90 billion.
The suffering of governments will increase in light of the continuous deficit in their public budgets due to the repercussions of the Corona pandemic on the shrinking of the global economy and the decline in the availability of food production in the international market, and because of the decline in resources and oil revenues in the region as a result of lower prices.
According to the FAO, the rise in food prices does not please the Arab citizen either, because in the end he alone bears the consequences of the failure of Arab governments' performance in the economic and other fields. These increases will constitute additional burdens on the family's living costs and the Arab citizen will bear them from his own pocket, with millions losing their jobs and sources of income due to the Corona pandemic.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
