The rise in fuel and food prices due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia could exacerbate existing food security concerns in the Middle East and Africa and could lead to growing social disorders, said Carmen Reinhart, chief economist at the World Bank.
“There will be important implications for the Middle East, Africa, notably North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, which are already in a situation of food insecurity,” added Reinhart in an interview with Reuters.
“We know that food insecurity and riots were part of the history of the Arab Spring,” she said, in this sense, recalled.
In the same context, the World Bank said last month, a few days after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which the prices of agricultural products have already increased by 35% in a year and should continue to increase, since Russia and Ukraine are large exporters of wheat, corn, barley and sunflower oil.
The bank also warned that the benefits could be particularly serious in the Middle East and North Africa, where countries like Egypt import up to 80% of their Ukraine and Russia wheat.
