IMF’s Chief Economist and Director, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, has said restrictions imposed by India on exports of certain varieties of rice are likely to exacerbate volatility on food prices in the rest of the world.
“And they (the ban on rice exports) can also lead to retaliatory measures. So, they are certainly something that we would encourage the removal of these type of export restrictions, because they can be harmful globally,” Gourinchas said in a press conference after it launched World Economic Outlook on Tuesday.
He was asked in the press conference on what would be the impact on the global inflation after India's decision to restrict export of certain categories of rice.Notably, India’s rice exports ban came soon after Russia's announcement of pulling out from the United Nations and Turkey-brokered Black Sea grain deal.
The IMF chief economist noted that the Black Sea Grain Initiative was very instrumental in making sure that there would be ample grain supply to the world in the last year.
“And there are estimates of about 33 million tons of grain that were shipped from Ukraine to the rest of the world. And it helped keep price pressures on food and grain prices lower,” Gourinchas said.