As Russia continues to invade Ukraine for a month, global energy and food prices such as crude oil, natural gas, and wheat have soared, and concerns over the global supply chain have worsened.
Concerns are growing that consumer prices in each country, which have already risen to the highest level in decades due to soaring energy and food prices due to the war, will soar further and the global economy will fall into a recession.
The price of nickel and aluminum also rose to an all-time high.
Nickel, whose demand for electric vehicle batteries increases rapidly, rose more than 70% compared to the beginning of the year, while aluminum rose about 20%.
The war in Ukraine has already raised global food prices to a decades-high level due to supply chain chaos caused by COVID-19, leading to a food crisis in poor countries.
Wheat futures hit a record high of $12.94 per bushel earlier this month. Currently, it is traded at around $11 on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), up 45 percent from the beginning of the year.
Wheat is a crop that accounts for about 29 percent of the world’s exports to Ukraine and Russia. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine is called the “European bread basket.”
Corn prices, which Russia and Ukraine occupy about 14% of the world market, have also risen about 27% from the beginning of the year, and soybeans have risen about 28% this year.
The World Food Price Index, compiled by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), already hit a record high of 140.7 in February, and the figure is expected to rise further since March, when the war began in earnest.
