By RIA Novosti
Washington : Mounting inflation, especially food price hikes, could spark unrest in developing countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.
Food prices have been rising steadily lately in low-income countries, especially in Africa, due to food shortages.
Egypt, the Philippines, Indonesia, Haiti and some other countries are already facing social unrest due to food price hikes, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director said Saturday.
“Hundreds of thousands could starve and children would suffer from malnutrition,” Strauss-Kahn said at the spring meetings of the private lending arm of the World Bank.
The IMF chief urged the international community to address this problem more seriously.
“So, if we want to avoid this huge rise in commodity prices, and especially food prices, having terrible consequences, then we need to do much more about this problem than has been done until now,” Strauss-Kahn said.