IMF: Food-fuel surge puts poor countries at ”tipping point”

Poor countries are increasingly threatened by the surging food and fuel prices, which is eating up reserves and seriously frustrating poverty reduction efforts, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a broad 162-country survey.

The report said that the impact is being felt globally but is most acute for import-dependent poor and middle-income countries confronted by balance of payments problems, higher inflation, and worsening poverty.

“Some countries are really at a tipping point,” IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said upon the release of the report on Tuesday.

Xinhua