{"id":23468,"date":"2022-05-24T20:18:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T20:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2"},"modified":"2022-05-24T20:24:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T20:24:32","slug":"govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2","title":{"rendered":"Govts should subsidise food and energy, says IMF boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>Governments need to subsidise the cost of food and energy for the poorest members of society, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has told the BBC.<\/p>\n

People around the world are struggling with the rising cost of living. Kristalina Georgieva said support needs to be provided \u201cin a very targeted manner, preferably by providing subsidies directly to people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many governments are providing some help but critics argue it\u2019s not enough. When it comes to the cost of living crisis, Ms Georgieva said: \u201cThere are two priorities, one the very poor people, segments of society that are now struggling with high food and energy prices\u201d.<\/p>\n

The second, she added, is to support those businesses that have been \u201cmost damaged\u201d by the war in Ukraine. The IMF\u2019s role is to work with governments to stabilise the global economy and enhance prosperity.<\/p>\n

However, that\u2019s proving challenging because food prices have hit record highs this year, whilst oil and gas prices have also risen sharply. This is largely because of the twin shocks of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Between them Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of crops and hydrocarbons.<\/p>\n

Recession fears<\/b><\/p>\n

The importance of these commodities to the global economy has led the annualised inflation rate to reach its highest point in decades in many countries: 9% in the UK, 8.3% in the US and 7.4% in the Eurozone.<\/p>\n

Central banks are lifting interest rates to try and slow the increase in prices, which has led some influential figures such as Goldman Sachs\u2019 Lloyd Blankfein to warn of the risk of recession.<\/p>\n

Ms Georgieva is concerned about the impact those higher borrowing costs will have on governments who have to repay huge debts they took on to get through the pandemic.<\/p>\n

She said governments needed to be \u201cvery careful\u201d about how much money they spent and what they spent it on. The problems of falling living standards was at the top of the agenda at this week\u2019s meeting of G7 finance ministers in Germany.<\/p>\n

The meeting of seven wealthy countries ended with a pledge to \u201ccontinue to work together to minimise the impact of the war globally as well as on our own economies and population by providing well-targeted support, where necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Over the last few months governments have made a range of interventions to try and lower the cost of living. In the US President Biden has released oil from reserves to try and bring prices down, Spain and Portugal have capped gas bills and it\u2019s a leading issue in Australia\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

In the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has made some tax changes and is considering a windfall tax on the soaring profits of energy companies. Ms Georgieva is concerned that without the correct government support the protests seen in Sri Lanka could be repeated in other countries.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s economic crisis, exacerbated by rising prices, has led to deadly riots, a new prime minister and a first ever default on its debts. The IMF boss said such similar unrest before the pandemic, from France to Chile, was caused by \u201ca sense of inequality growing\u201d and decisions being made without the support of the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are to learn any lessons from 2019 if is to be much more humble about policy decisions, and engage in multiple ways with people, because policies must be for people, not the paper we write them on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Feeding the world<\/b><\/p>\n

A group of international development bodies including the IMF and World Bank this week launched a major plan to try and tackle food insecurity around the world.<\/p>\n

It was spearheaded by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said it was necessary because: \u201cThere\u2019s a very real risk that soaring global market prices of food and fertiliser will result in more people going hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Georgieva said that while there is plenty of food, it is not evenly distributed. The solutions, she said, are growing more crops where possible but also a greater focus on agricultural productivity, \u201cnot only because of the war, but because of climate change\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cTrade needs to be retained open, we should not have a situation in which countries hold on to food more than they need and create all kinds of barriers for moving it from one place to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

India is the world\u2019s second biggest wheat producer but has banned exports, just as other countries were looking for it to make up some of the shortfall from Ukraine\u2019s inability to ship its produce. Narendra Modi\u2019s government says that ban could be revised at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would really beg them to reconsider, that is such a difficult moment for the world,\u201d Ms Georgieva said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand they need to feed their people. They have 1.4 billion of them, but let\u2019s all act in a collaborative manner because only if you do [that, do] we have a chance to overcome this crisis.\u201d SOURCE: BBC<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. Governments need to subsidise the cost of food and energy for the poorest members of society, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has told the BBC. People around the world are struggling with the rising cost of living. Kristalina Georgieva said support needs to be provided \u201cin a very targeted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-23468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nGovts should subsidise food and energy, says IMF boss - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Governments need to subsidise the cost of food and energy for the poorest members of society, the head of the Internatio ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Govts should subsidise food and energy, says IMF boss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Governments need to subsidise the cost of food and energy for the poorest members of society, the head of the Internatio ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-24T20:18:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-24T20:24:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2022\/05\/img-628d3edeec3ac.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Govts should subsidise food and energy, says IMF boss\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-24T20:18:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-24T20:24:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2\"},\"wordCount\":850,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2022\/05\/img-628d3edeec3ac.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/govts-should-subsidise-food-and-energy-says-imf-boss-2\",\"name\":\"Govts should subsidise food and energy, says IMF boss - 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