Rising Food Prices Spark Deadly Unrest

[babylonsister]

World Bank to Meet as Rising Food Prices Spark Unrest
Agence France-Presse

Sunday 13 April 2008


Washington - The World Bank meets here Sunday as rising food prices spark deadly unrest in developing countries, underscoring the urgency of getting food aid to desperate people.

Policymakers of the anti-poverty bank are due to discuss a massive, coordinated international plan to reduce hunger announced less than two weeks ago by the head of the bank, Robert Zoellick.

With soaring food prices threatening political stability in poor countries, Zoellick called for a "new deal" for global food policy, similar in scope to a 1930s program under US president Franklin D. Roosevelt that tackled the problems of the Great Depression.

The World Bank meeting comes against a backdrop of a mounting global financial crisis, a US economy teetering on recession, high energy prices and currency market imbalances.

Escalating inflation is complicating policymakers' efforts to revive stuttering economic growth.

The 185-nation bank's sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, issued a dire warning Saturday about the food crisis at their spring meetings in Washington.

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