The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
The sweltering summer heat has continued to send more people, mainly children and elderly, suffering from diarrhoea and crowding hospitals in Dhaka city and other parts of the country. A two-year girl, Ria Moni, of Narayanganj died Tuesday on way to ICDDR,B hospital at Mohakhali in Dhaka, her family said. …
"Banning exports and going after traders is not going to prevent shooting up of prices. This is based on a false assumption. And planting Jatropha instead of soyabean will only end up tripling of food prices,' Vandana Shiva, eminent environmentalist said. Substituting food crops with alternatives such as jatropha will …
The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday criticised rice export bans, saying governments should instead resort to fiscal measures to help the poor, as prices of the staple continued to climb. While Indonesia promised more support to its farmers to encourage them to sell their produce to the government, signs China …
Developed nations should stop paying agricultural subsidies to encourage biofuel production because the payments are making staple foods more expensive, the Asian Development Bank said Monday. Biofuels should also be re-examined by governments around the world as it is increasingly unclear how environmentally friendly they are, said ADB managing director …
Even as the World Trade Organisation director general Pascal Lamy is expecting a break-through in the Doha Round negotiations in the next few weeks, several countries, including India, are expected to factor in rising food prices and use of bio-fuels in their discussions. However, this will not necessarily lead to …
AMID the intense suffering and pain generated by food inflation, our understanding of its causes is getting murkier. This issue is, predictably but unfortunately, getting increasingly politicised. Any sound and sustainable solution requires a sound understanding of the issue. Food inflation is now a macro and global phenomenon. Global price …
Egypt is to review its food subsidy system as it seeks ways to tackle rising inflation, which reached 14.2 per cent in March. Youssef Boutros-Ghali, finance minister, told the Financial Times that the government would look to raise additional revenues through new taxes or increasing existing taxes. However, he said …
AND all nations came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because everywhere the famine was severe:" Genesis 41:57 The Old Testament. The World Bank chief, Robert Zoellick, recently said that the demand for ethanol, droughts in Australia and Europe, financial market speculation, and increased demand for food due to …
Soaring food prices and global grain shortages are bringing new pressures on governments, food companies and consumers to relax their longstanding resistance to genetically engineered crops. In Japan and South Korea, some manufacturers for the first time have begun buying genetically engineered corn for use in soft drinks, snacks and …
Record global food prices will be on the agenda of the Group of Eight heads of state summit in July for the first time in almost 30 years, amid mounting concerns about the social, political and economic impact of the food crisis. The International Monetary Fund on Monday gave its …
Despite acknowledging the fact that there is little evidence to link the price rise to futures trading, Avijit Sen panel has taken the safe route on the politically sensitive issue, and maintanied that freeze on futures trading of rice, wheat, urad and tur should continue. The draft recommendation of the …
Bold reform is needed to deal with the long-term problem of rising food prices, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in an comment piece published yesterday. He wrote in the Financial Times that high food prices were "a serious humanitarian concern" and that more aid would be needed …
Bold reform is needed to deal with the long-term problem of rising food prices, International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a comment piece published Monday. He wrote in the Financial Times that high food prices were
When the order came down from the top brass of Bangladesh's armed forces it sounded like a joke. Some of the soldiers and sailors who were told that from now on their daily rations would include increased servings of potatoes almost certainly did not take it seriously either. But in …
Soaring prices are hitting rice, a staple food for more than half the earth's population, causing political unrest, supply bottlenecks, and sometimes draconian moves by governments to protect domestic stocks. Most of the 3 billion-plus people for whom rice is a diet basic are in Asia, but it is also …
It is amusing that the Union Government should express concern at the increasing use of foodgrains for production of bio-fuels in parts of the world. According to an official release, Dr Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Minister of State in the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, articulated India's position at the …
At around 5 p.m. on April 2, local police and officers from the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation descended on a four-story warehouse in suburban Manila. They were acting on a tip-off about possible illicit activity. But the agents weren't searching for drugs or knockoff Rolexes. They were looking for …
Rick Wagoner, General Motors' president and chief executive, has dismissed United Nations research that links biofuel production to rising food prices as "shockingly misinformed". The blunt assessment by the head of the world's largest car company reinvigorates intense debate about ostensible social costs and environmental benefits of biofuels, a burgeoning …
High food prices are today a serious humanitarian concern. They are also a source of macroeconomic instability affecting budgets, trade balances and, of course, incomes almost everywhere in the world. Global rice prices have increased more than 50 per cent so far this year and most other food prices are …
