The World Bank announced Sunday a 10 million US dollar grant for Haiti to help the Government respond to the increasing, unaffordable prices of food for poor families.
In Haiti, the prices of rice, corn, beans, cooking oil and other foodstuffs have increased significantly in the last few months.
The rapid rise in food prices could push 100m people in poor countries deeper into poverty, the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, has said.
His warning follows that from the leader of the International Monetary Fund, who said hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of starvation.
The Chilean government said Thursday that the record high copper price reached on the London Metal Exchange, over 4 US dollars a pound, is good news but also demands prudence.
Economy Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz, a fierce critic of the International Monetary Fund said that this time the fund's experts have it right in their assessment of the current global financial and credit crisis, which many economists however consider as to harsh and pessimistic.
Chile's central bank, under pressure from Congress and exporters to weaken the peso, announced Thursday it will buy 8 billion US dollars in currency markets this year to increase reserves and in response to the sharp appreciation against the dollar.
Rice prices are set to keep rising as demand is outstripping production according to the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). In its Rice Today publication IRRI calls for more research on how to increase rice productivity and face the rice prices crisis.
Economic growth in Latinamerica will slow this year and next because of a mild recession in the US and turmoil in global financial markets, according to the International Monetary Fund World Outlook report released Wednesday
The Bank of England on Thursday lowered interest rates to 5% from 5.25% in an attempt to spur the UK economy. This is the third rate cut since early December.
BoE argued that concern over the slowing down of the economy was more immediate that inflation, which should fall back to 2% in the mid term.
The European Central Bank left interest rates on hold at 4% highlighting concern about accelerating short-term inflation pressures and the acknowledgement of a protracted period of economic uncertainty stemming from the global credit crisis.
The Chinese currency broke this week the psychological benchmark of seven Yuan to the US dollar which could signal a change of policy in Beijing since a stronger currency should help fight inflation and makes food and energy prices cheaper.