Global food prices remain stable but high, World Bank reports

"Global food prices remained stable, though close to 2008 record levels, the World Bank said on Thursday, as it warned that a 'new norm' of costlier food was setting in and threatening to increase hunger and malnutrition in the world's poorer regions," Reuters reports. "In an update of its quarterly 'Food Price Watch' report, the World Bank said the absence of 'panic policies,' such as food export restrictions, had helped stabilize commodity prices since price spikes in July," the news service writes. "The World Bank food price index shows that while prices have stabilized they are seven percent higher than a year ago," according to Reuters. "In particular, grains are up 12 percent from a year ago and close to the all-time high set during a global food price crisis in 2008, when food riots broke out in Asia and Africa," the news service notes. "The World Bank urged governments to strengthen safety nets for the poorest and ensure that nutrition was factored into the help given to poor households," Reuters writes, adding, "U.N. agencies have estimated that some 870 million people are chronically malnourished" (Wroughton, 11/29).