About 280 million people affected by acute hunger daily

The World Bank’s latest food security update shows that food price inflation rates have risen in most countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia in 2024.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) outlines the critical status of food security worldwide, with more than 280 million people affected by acute hunger daily. There have been relatively few casualties in Central Asian countries, although neighboring Afghanistan remains a food insecurity hotspot three and a half years after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul.

Overall, a separate World Bank estimate shows that 2.8 billion individuals worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet. Thus, food price inflation remains a major reason for food insecurity. The report says more than 70 percent of low-income countries experienced food price inflation of more than 5 percent in the last quarter of 2024.

Inflationary pressures on food products in many countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia were relatively moderate in 2024.

Among the “upper-middle-income countries,” Azerbaijan and Georgia have shown steady growth, with Azerbaijan recording a 4.4 percent increase in food prices in December and Georgia recording a 3.6 percent increase in the same month. Armenia also saw an increase, but remained below 2 percent throughout 2024.