A global surge in food and fuel prices has become a serious problem for developing countries and the problems are likely to persist for years, a senior World Bank official said Thursday.
While some benefit from higher revenue on export of commodities, the problem of surging food and fuel prices is widespread enough to have affected about 30 to 40 developing countries adversely, Danny Leipziger, the World Bank's vice president for poverty reduction and economic management said.
"The research part of the World Bank tends to think this is not a short-term cycle issue, that this is a structural issue for reasons of global demand, for reasons of what is happening in biofuels and oil prices, and this is likely to be sustained for a number of years,"he added.
Global prices for food and fuel have risen sharply and even accelerated in 2008, while food inflation between January 2007 and 2008 has seen increases ranging from 10 to 34 percent.
