Top 10 African countries with the highest food inflation at the start of 2025

Food inflation continues to be a significant issue for some African countries, compounding economic hardship and increasing food insecurity for millions.

Business Insider Africa presents the top 10 African countries with the highest food inflation at the start of 2025.
This list is courtesy of the World Bank’s Food Security Report.
Sudan ranks number 1 on the list.

With many African nations already dealing with structural issues, the significant rise in food costs jeopardizes not just household welfare but also overall economic stability.

Food security remains alarmingly low in most low-income nations, notably in Africa, where an estimated 61.6 million people are food insecure, as seen in the World Bank’s latest Food Security Update.

The report also mentions that over 50 million more are expected in Western and Central Africa.

Two of the primary culprits for this issue are conflicts and climate change, which remain the primary causes of food insecurity.

“Since the last update, agricultural and export price indices have risen, closing at 3 percent and 6 percent higher, respectively,” the report states.

“The cereal price index closed at the same level • Domestic food price inflation remains high in most low-income countries,” it adds.

Food price inflation data from the most recent month between October 2024 and January 2025 shows high inflation in many low- and middle-income countries, with inflation higher than 5% in 73.7 percent of low-income countries (1.5 percentage points higher since the last update on January 14, 2025), 52.2 percent of lower-middle-income countries (8.7 percentage points higher), 38.0 percent of upper-middle-income countries (no change).

In real terms, food price inflation topped overall inflation (defined as year-on-year change in the overall CPI) in 56 percent of the 164 countries where both food CPI and overall CPI indexes are available.

With that said, here are the 10 African countries with the highest food inflation early in 2025, according to the World Bank’s Food report containing data from February 2024, to February 2025.