Global food prices hit record high
Global food prices have reached their highest point in 20 years and could increase further because of rising oil prices stemming from unrest in Libya and the Middle East, a UN agency has warned. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement on Thursday that its food price index was up 2.2 per cent last month, the highest record in both real, inflation-corrected terms and nominal terms since the agency started monitoring prices two decades ago. It is the eighth consecutive month that food prices have risen, the Rome-based agency said. The increase was driven mostly by higher prices of cereals, meat and dairy products, the FAO said. Sugar was the only commodity of the groups being monitored whose price had not risen. Oxfam International, a UK-based aid group, called the rise "deeply worrying".