Here’s welcoming you to a new week and another Monday.
This week, we would be looking at something that is currently affecting consumers all over the world; which happens to be rising food prices. Inflation particularly, food inflation is one topic that is increasingly giving governments, multilateral agencies, and most importantly households, sleepless nights.
Inflation is a general increase in the prices of goods and services in a country. Food inflation therefore can be explained as the rise in the cost of essential food items in relation to their previous prices.
Even though this has been on the increase in recent times, the world in Ukraine has further worsened it. This is because Ukraine was/is a major supplier of wheat, sunflower, and even honey among others.
In actual terms, food inflation means different things in different parts of the world. In the developed world, food inflation tends to lead to inconvenience whilst in the developing countries, unfortunately, it translates to hunger or poverty for many.
For example, in Nigeria food inflation coupled with the continued devaluation of the Naira has put immense pressure on the budgets of most people.
Whilst we cannot ignore or avoid inflation; we can find ways of dampening its impact on our pockets, below are some of them:
- Switch or Slice off: one of the ways of dealing with rising prices is to start first by examining what money is being spent on. For many people, food and transportation tend to take a huge portion of their budgets.
The trick is to identify the specific pressure points and then search for substitutes or replacements. For some expenses, a complete elimination may be advisable even if it is in the short run.
- Keep saving and investing: for those of us in Nigeria, the easiest way of hedging against inflation is to keep a portion of savings in alternative currencies less prone to inflation (dollar and euros are some examples). For those of us outside the country, high-interest mutual funds and bonds may be a way of protecting your purchasing power.
- Increase income: although for many people, this may be easier said than done but times of inflationary pressure call for a different approach. This is because you can only cut expenses to a certain extent, you just have to boost income no matter how small.
In some parts of the world like the US, employees are currently in the driving seat with respect to salaries and as such can take advantage of such opportunities.
In other countries where such opportunities may be limited, side hustles or passive income are a more preferred approach.
Till we meet again next week, do have a profitable week!
Toyin Oguntuyi