(Washington) The war in Ukraine will have a “significant impact” on the price of wheat, of which the country is a major exporter, and therefore of bread, warned Friday the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Posted at 12:40 p.m.
“There is going to be a big impact on wheat prices and on ordinary bread prices as well,” the WTO boss said at a virtual conference organized by the IMF and the Institute of International Economic Law.
This is “part of the economic consequence”, she stressed, adding that “Ukraine is one of the largest wheat exporters in the world”.
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, who also took part in this discussion, underlined that the economic impact “is going to go beyond Ukraine, for three reasons”.
She thus specified that the consequences of the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia, which will be added to the economic impact of the conflict alone, “will mainly result in (the rise in) energy prices, as well as (of) grain prices, adding to what has been a growing concern, inflation, and how to counter it”.
“Secondly, there are implications for the functioning of the financial system whenever there is uncertainty, and let us remember that we entered the events in Ukraine from a position of great uncertainty in the global economy. “, she added.
She pointed out that “this uncertainty has an impact on confidence in emerging markets and we often see money flowing out of emerging markets when we need the exact opposite, more funding” to these country.
Finally, she mentioned the consequences to be expected in neighboring countries, “because part of the country’s Central Asia, the Caucasus, Moldova are economically connected”.
The boss of the IMF had already, on Thursday, alerted to “a significant economic risk for the region and the world”.