A United Nations report has estimated that India could lose $49 billion (more than Rs 3 lakh crore) of its GDP if global food prices double, PTI reported. India will see the second highest loss after China, which is estimated to lose $161 billion of its GDP because of volatile food prices. The report said the world is likely to suffer from more volatile food commodity prices because of several reasons, including climate change and rising populations.

The UN Environment Programme-Global Footprint Network report, titled ‘How food prices link environmental constraints to sovereign credit risk’, said, “In the future, the world will likely suffer from higher and more volatile food prices as a result of a growing imbalance between the supply of and demand for food. Rising populations and incomes will intensify the demand for food, while climate change and resource scarcity will disrupt food production.”

The report looks at 110 countries to assess which ones face the worst risk from an imbalance in food supply and demand. While China and India would have the highest loss in terms of money, five African countries face the highest loss in terms of percentage of GDP – Benin, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and Ghana.

United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “Fluctuations in food prices are felt directly by consumers and reverberate throughout national economies. As environmental pressures mount, it is important to anticipate the economic impact of these stresses so that countries and investors can work on mitigating and minimising risk.”