Surging prices of basic foods like rice, wheat and corn have triggered riots in some of the worldÕs poorest countries.

A warning from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the possible consequences of the rise in global food prices, together with the plight of the world’s poorest nations, dominated the start of a major UN trade conference Sunday in Ghana’s capital. “If not handled properly, this (food) crisis could trigger a cascade of others and develop into a multiple crisis, becoming a multi-dimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world,“ Ban warned delegates, AFP wrote.
The most high-profile visiting head of state, Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, warned the 12th session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that poor nations should not be made to pay for the credit crunch that the world’s richest economies have brought upon themselves.
“Globalization cannot become a way of transferring losses to the developing countries. Indeed, they are precisely the ones that have most contributed to maintaining the world’s economic growth levels“, Lula said.
Ban stressed the plight of the world’s 50 poorest nations, whose population he referred to as the “bottom billion“. “The rising economic tide has not lifted all boats. The poor in 142 of the world’s nations are being pulled into the growing global economy. But those of the other 50, the poorest of the world’s poor, are not. The global boom has passed them by,“ he said. “We cannot leave the bottom billion to flounder; we cannot neglect their real and pressing needs.“
Brazil’s Lula similarly emphasized the need to find a sustainable solution to the hike in global food prices. “We must develop mechanisms to ensure that the neediest do not lack food. UNCTAD is in a position to develop such mechanisms together with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,“ he said.
In related news, International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Monday that bold reform is needed to deal with the long-term problem of rising food prices. He wrote in the Financial Times that high food prices were “a serious humanitarian concern“ and that more aid would be needed to help feed the poor, but added that “we must be bolder in tackling the long-term challenges of food supply.“
Urging global coordination of agricultural policy, Strauss-Kahn wrote that protectionism, the use of food crops to produce biofuels, inadequate risk mitigation and insurance and poor policy were contributing to the rising prices of food.
“We are already seeing actions at the national level, such as curbs on food exports, that have a damaging global impact,“ he wrote, adding that the Doha round of international trade talks would play “a critically helpful role“ in fighting off protectionism.
Also, former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan Saturday told governments to invest more in agriculture to avoid future food crises, but warned that current shortages would hurt the poor.
Annan said the surging price of basic foods like rice, wheat and corn in some of the world’s poorest countries, which have triggered riots in Haiti and demonstrations in some African countries, will last for sometime.
“Governments have to focus on agriculture and come up with policies which are supportive of rural development. Agriculture also creates lots of jobs and we should be able to help the farmers increase their production,“ said Annan, who heads the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The former UN chief urged developed countries should help the World Food Program with more cash so they can provide emergency relief to those countries worst-hit.
“The World Food Programs has been making persistent appeals and I know many governments are thinking the whole programs of biofuels,“ he told reporters in Nairobi. “We as Africans have to focus on agriculture to improve productivity and assure food security for ourselves, but for the short term, we are going to have serious problems to handle,“ he added.
Annan said his organization will continue funding research in seeds to avoid future foods shortages.

Business economists are turning pessimistic about the US outlook and increasingly fear economy will slip into a recession in coming months. The National Association for Business Economics said on Monday that the 109 members who responded to its quarterly survey between March 24 and April 8 were “notably downbeat“ about their first-quarter experience and about near-term prospects, Reuters reported.
“For the first time in five years, reports of falling profit margins outnumbered reports of rising margins in the first quarter of 2008, while demand at respondents’ firms grew more weakly than at any time since the recession of 2001,“ said Ken Simonson, chief economist for Associated General Contractors of America.
About 30 percent of respondents expected gross domestic product, the broadest measure of national economic activity, to decline in the first half of 2008 and most others thought growth will be below an annual rate of one percent. By contrast, only 10 percent expected the economy to contract in the first half when they were surveyed in January.
A recession is typically defined as two consecutive quarters in which GDP declines. The last US recession ran from March to November 2001.

Automakers issued ambitious forecasts Sunday of up to 65 percent sales growth in China’s booming market this year--a striking contrast to the gloom in the United States and elsewhere. Sales of some individual models to newly prosperous Chinese drivers soared by up to 100 percent in the first quarter over the same period of 2007, said executives speaking at the Beijing auto show, AP reported.
Toyota Motor Corp. expects to sell 700,000 vehicles in China this year, up 40 percent from 2007, executive Yuzo Ushiyama said.
Automakers are looking to China to drive sagging sales at a time when demand in the United States is expected to decline this year while Europe and Japan are flat. Sales in China, already the world’s No. 2 vehicle market after the United States, are forecast to grow 15 to 20 percent this year.

Japan’s Finance Ministry cut its assessment of the regional economies for the first time in more than six years and said the recovery is pausing as business sentiment deteriorates, Bloomberg reported.
“The regional economies on the whole have been pausing recently“, the ministry’s regional-office chiefs said in a report released in Tokyo on Monday. In the previous quarterly report in January, they said “a gradual recovery continues, though weakness is seen in some areas.“
The Bank of Japan last week cut its evaluation in eight of nine regions as costlier energy and raw materials hurt the expansion. The central bank’s Tankan survey this month showed confidence among large manufacturers fell to a four-year low and businesses planned to reduce investment.
The ministry last cut its overall assessment in the fourth quarter of 2001, when the economy was in a recession following the bursting of the technology bubble. Economic conditions have worsened in five of the nation’s 11 regions, today’s report said.
Risks to Japan’s economy are increasing because of higher oil prices as well as slowing US growth and fluctuations in stock and currency markets caused by the subprime mortgage problem.

Malaysia’s prime minister said Monday he will make the state anti-graft agency independent and more than triple its number of officers as part of sweeping reforms to battle corruption. Critics say Malaysia’s judiciary and Anti-Corruption Agency, which is under the prime minister’s office, are heavily politicized and prone to influence by power-brokers.
Malaysian leader Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a speech the anti-graft agency will be turned into a commission, AP wrote.
Abdullah also said he will increase the number of anti-corruption officers from fewer than 2,000 now to more than 7,000 over the next five years and propose new laws to protect whistle-blowers and witnesses.
The new anti-graft body will have the power to hire and fire staff and to choose which cases to investigate.