Food prices rose further in September due to higher costs of oils and dairy products, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said Thursday, with the increases outpacing inflation in many countries. The FAO said its Food Price Index came in at 178.4 points in September, a gain 1.4 points or 0.8 percent from August and 7.4 points or 4.3 percent above September 2016.
"Firmer prices in the vegetable oil and dairy sectors were behind the small month-on-month rise in the value" of the overall index, the FAO said in a statement. The cereals index fell thanks to good harvests for maize in North American and wheat in Russia, but it was still 8 percent above the level of September 2016.
"World cereal stocks by the close of seasons in 2018 are now forecast at a new all-time high of 720.5 million tonnes," said the FAO. Consumer price inflation is expected to come in at 2.3 percent this year in industrialised nations, according to the OECD.
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