The Role of Inventory Adjustments in Quantifying Factors Causing Food Price Inflation
The food commodity price increases beginning in 2001 and culminating in the food crisis of 2007/08 reflected a combination of several factors, including economic growth, biofuel expansion, exchange rate fluctuations, and energy price inflation. To...
Main Authors: | , , , |
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2012
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110801103735 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3506 |
Summary: | The food commodity price increases
beginning in 2001 and culminating in the food crisis of
2007/08 reflected a combination of several factors,
including economic growth, biofuel expansion, exchange rate
fluctuations, and energy price inflation. To quantify these
influences, the authors developed an empirical model that
also included crop inventory adjustments. The study shows
that, if inventory effects are not taken into account, the
impacts of the various factors on food commodity price
inflation would be overestimated. If the analysis ignores
crop inventory adjustments, it indicates that prices of
corn, soybean, rapeseed, rice, and wheat would have been,
respectively, 42, 38, 52, and 45 percent lower than the
corresponding observed prices in 2007. If inventories are
properly taken into account, the contributions of the above
mentioned factors to those commodity prices are 36, 26, 26,
and 35 percent, respectively. Those four factors, taken
together, explain 70 percent of the price increase for corn,
55 percent for soybean, 54 percent for wheat, and 47 percent
for rice during the 2001-2007 period. Other factors, such as
speculation, trade policy, and weather shocks, which are not
included in the analysis, might be responsible for the
remaining contribution to the food commodity price increases. |
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