Cost of living - The Facts

Inflation

• 9% average worldwide rise in prices, 2022.¹
• 14.5% rise in prices of food and drinks in the UK, 2022.²
• 9 poor countries, including Pakistan and Ethiopia, expected to pay 3x more for fertilizer imports in 2022 than in 2020.³
• 9 of the world’s largest fertilizer companies on course to make $57bn profit, up fourfold over the period.³

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Poverty and hunger

• 263m people were likely to have been pushed into extreme poverty in 2022 – 1 million every 33 hours.⁴
• 702m people affected by hunger in 2021, a 150m increase from 2019. These numbers reflected income losses during the Covid-19 pandemic, not actual food shortages.⁵
• 3.1bn people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, a 112m increase on the previous year.
• Increases were seen on all continents, but were starkest in Asia – 78m more – and Africa – 25m more.⁶
• 43m people at risk of famine or a severe hunger crisis.
• 45% of deaths of children under 5 are linked to undernutrition.⁷

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Debt

• $43bn debt servicing for the world’s poorest countries in 2022.
• This could have covered 1/2 their food import bills and health spending.⁴
• People in 54 countries are currently living in debt crisis.⁸
• 87% of Covid-19 loans made by the IMF required countries to adopt austerity – despite admitting that this increases unemployment and inequality.^4,9

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Profit and inequality

The 10 richest men have greater wealth than the poorest 40% of humanity.⁴

Their wealth gains during the pandemic could pay to vaccinate the entire world, plus fill finance gaps in education, healthcare and social protection.⁴

Billionaires saw their wealth increase as much in 24 months after the pandemic began than in the preceding 23 years. In the food and energy sector, their fortunes increased by $1bn every 2 days.⁴

• $180bn The world’s 7 biggest oil firms made $180bn profit in the first 9 months of 2022.¹⁰
• Since 1980 workers’ share of global income has fallen equivalent to taking $2,000 from every worker’s annual paycheck.¹¹
• Average price markups have risen from 15% above costs in the 1980s to 60% today.¹¹

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1. IMF, ‘World Economic Outlook (October 2022)’, nin.tl/IMF-outlook-2022
2. Al Jazeera, ‘UK inflation jumps back above 10 percent as food prices soar’, 19 October 2022, nin.tl/UK-inflation-jumps-2022
3. GRAIN & IATP, ‘The Fertilizer Trap’, November 2022, nin.tl/GRAIN-fertilizer-trap
4. Oxfam, ‘Profiting from Pain’, 23 May 2022, nin.tl/ProfitingPain
5. FAO, ‘Food Security and Nutrition Around the World 2022’, 2022, nin.tl/food-security-nutrition-2022
6. FAO, ‘Cost and affordability of a healthy diet: an update’, 2022, nin.tl/affording-healthy-diet-2022
7. Action Against Hunger, ‘World Hunger Facts – Action Against Hunger’, nin.tl/WorldHungerFacts
8. Debt Justice, ‘Countries in Crisis’, nin.tl/countries-debt-crises-2022
9. Grieve Chelwa, ‘Is it too late now to say sorry?’, Africa is a Country, May 2016, nin.tl/IMF-too-late-say-sorry
10. Jasper Jolly & Jessica Elgot, ‘Profits at world’s seven biggest oil firms soar to almost £150bn this year’, The Guardian, October 2022, nin.tl/oil-profits-soar-150bn
11. The Balanced Economy Project, ‘The Counterbalance: an anti-monopoly newsletter’, March 2021, nin.tl/monopoly-soars-workers-share-drops