Rising international food prices could trigger an acceleration of inflation in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean this year, highlighting the need for policies to protect the urban poor, according to a new study by Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Net food importers with a greater share of spending concentrated on tradable foodstuffs and with little room to let their currency appreciate will be the hardest hit by higher international food prices, according to the study. The urban poor that do not have access to any enhanced income from self-grown products are most at risk from the food price shock.
“There is a need to increase and improve targeting of aid, perhaps through reformed conditional cash transfer schemes, to these groups to compensate the effect of the food price
