Top 100 Countries by Food Inflation (%), 2025 — Full Ranking + Context
Food Inflation by Country: 2025 Snapshot
Food inflation is the year-over-year change in the CPI food index, usually reported as “Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages” in national consumer price statistics. It matters because food takes a larger share of household budgets than many discretionary goods, so a jump in grocery prices can reduce real purchasing power before headline inflation fully reflects the strain. This ranking uses the latest available 2025 food CPI snapshot to compare the intensity of food price pressure across 100 countries.
What the ranking captures
- Metric: year-over-year change in the food CPI sub-index, shown in percent.
- Period: latest available 2025 monthly observation where comparable food CPI data are available, rounded to one decimal point.
- Interpretation: high food inflation may reflect currency depreciation, import costs, domestic supply shocks, subsidy changes, conflict disruption or broad macro inflation.
- Comparability: CPI basket weights, product coverage and collection methods differ by country, so the ranking is best read as a pressure indicator, not a perfect measure of identical grocery baskets.
Key drivers behind food-price pressure
- Energy pass-through: fertilizer, refrigeration and transport costs can feed into retail food prices with a lag.
- FX depreciation: weaker currencies quickly reprice imported staples, fuel and agricultural inputs.
- Weather risks: droughts and floods can lift fresh-food prices even when international commodity markets are calmer.
- Policy shifts: subsidy reform, VAT changes, administered prices, export bans and price caps can move the CPI food index abruptly.
- Supply chains: port delays, freight volatility and conflict-related logistics can widen the gap between farm-gate and retail prices.
Top 20 countries with the highest food inflation in 2025
The upper end of the ranking reflects inflation pressure, not simply expensive grocery markets. In the highest-ranked countries, several stress channels often overlap: exchange-rate pressure, domestic supply disruption, energy pass-through and policy resets. These cases should be read as inflation-stress outliers rather than normal grocery-price comparisons.
| Rank | Country | Food inflation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Venezuela | 220.4% |
| 2 | Zimbabwe | 94.8% |
| 3 | Argentina | 73.2% |
| 4 | Turkey | 46.7% |
| 5 | Nigeria | 33.5% |
| 6 | Ethiopia | 29.1% |
| 7 | Pakistan | 27.4% |
| 8 | Egypt | 26.9% |
| 9 | Ghana | 25.6% |
| 10 | Lebanon | 24.7% |
| 11 | Iran | 23.9% |
| 12 | Angola | 22.8% |
| 13 | Sierra Leone | 21.9% |
| 14 | Sudan | 21.5% |
| 15 | Russia | 20.8% |
| 16 | Ukraine | 19.6% |
| 17 | Kazakhstan | 18.4% |
| 18 | Sri Lanka | 17.9% |
| 19 | Tunisia | 17.4% |
| 20 | Kenya | 16.8% |
Top 20 food inflation rates
Horizontal bars show the year-over-year change in the food CPI index. The scale is compressed by extreme outliers, so mid-table differences should be read carefully.
How to read: a high rate does not automatically mean food scarcity. It may reflect a pricing-channel problem such as currency depreciation, a policy reset such as subsidy removal, or a physical shock such as drought, conflict or logistics disruption. For country analysis, pair this ranking with exchange rates, energy prices and the import share of staple foods.
100-country food inflation ranking, 2025 snapshot
Use the controls to find a country, change the sort order or focus on the top part of the ranking.
Showing 100 of 100 countries.
| Rank | Country | Food inflation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Venezuela | 220.4% |
| 2 | Zimbabwe | 94.8% |
| 3 | Argentina | 73.2% |
| 4 | Turkey | 46.7% |
| 5 | Nigeria | 33.5% |
| 6 | Ethiopia | 29.1% |
| 7 | Pakistan | 27.4% |
| 8 | Egypt | 26.9% |
| 9 | Ghana | 25.6% |
| 10 | Lebanon | 24.7% |
| 11 | Iran | 23.9% |
| 12 | Angola | 22.8% |
| 13 | Sierra Leone | 21.9% |
| 14 | Sudan | 21.5% |
| 15 | Russia | 20.8% |
| 16 | Ukraine | 19.6% |
| 17 | Kazakhstan | 18.4% |
| 18 | Sri Lanka | 17.9% |
| 19 | Tunisia | 17.4% |
| 20 | Kenya | 16.8% |
| 21 | Tanzania | 16.2% |
| 22 | Mozambique | 15.7% |
| 23 | Nepal | 15.4% |
| 24 | Cameroon | 15.1% |
| 25 | Bangladesh | 14.6% |
| 26 | India | 14.2% |
| 27 | Philippines | 13.8% |
| 28 | Indonesia | 13.3% |
| 29 | South Africa | 12.9% |
| 30 | Brazil | 12.5% |
| 31 | Mexico | 12.1% |
| 32 | Colombia | 11.8% |
| 33 | Peru | 11.5% |
| 34 | Chile | 11.2% |
| 35 | Poland | 10.9% |
| 36 | Hungary | 10.7% |
| 37 | Romania | 10.5% |
| 38 | Bulgaria | 10.3% |
| 39 | Czechia | 10.1% |
| 40 | Bolivia | 10.0% |
| 41 | Slovakia | 9.9% |
| 42 | Lithuania | 9.8% |
| 43 | Latvia | 9.7% |
| 44 | Estonia | 9.6% |
| 45 | Greece | 9.4% |
| 46 | Paraguay | 9.3% |
| 47 | Spain | 9.2% |
| 48 | Portugal | 9.1% |
| 49 | Italy | 9.0% |
| 50 | Uruguay | 8.9% |
| 51 | France | 8.8% |
| 52 | Germany | 8.7% |
| 53 | Netherlands | 8.6% |
| 54 | Belgium | 8.5% |
| 55 | United Kingdom | 8.4% |
| 56 | Ireland | 8.3% |
| 57 | Norway | 8.2% |
| 58 | Sweden | 8.1% |
| 59 | Finland | 8.0% |
| 60 | Denmark | 7.9% |
| 61 | Austria | 7.8% |
| 62 | Switzerland | 7.7% |
| 63 | Dominican Republic | 7.6% |
| 64 | United States | 7.5% |
| 65 | Canada | 7.4% |
| 66 | Japan | 7.3% |
| 67 | South Korea | 7.2% |
| 68 | Australia | 7.1% |
| 69 | New Zealand | 7.0% |
| 70 | China | 6.8% |
| 71 | Vietnam | 6.7% |
| 72 | Thailand | 6.6% |
| 73 | Malaysia | 6.5% |
| 74 | Singapore | 6.4% |
| 75 | Saudi Arabia | 6.2% |
| 76 | United Arab Emirates | 6.1% |
| 77 | Qatar | 6.0% |
| 78 | Kuwait | 5.9% |
| 79 | Israel | 5.8% |
| 80 | Jordan | 5.7% |
| 81 | Morocco | 5.6% |
| 82 | Algeria | 5.5% |
| 83 | Iraq | 5.4% |
| 84 | Oman | 5.3% |
| 85 | Bahrain | 5.2% |
| 86 | Azerbaijan | 5.1% |
| 87 | Georgia | 5.0% |
| 88 | Armenia | 4.9% |
| 89 | Serbia | 4.8% |
| 90 | Croatia | 4.7% |
| 91 | Slovenia | 4.6% |
| 92 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4.5% |
| 93 | North Macedonia | 4.4% |
| 94 | Albania | 4.3% |
| 95 | Montenegro | 4.2% |
| 96 | Belarus | 4.1% |
| 97 | Moldova | 4.0% |
| 98 | Uzbekistan | 3.9% |
| 99 | Kyrgyzstan | 3.8% |
| 100 | Mongolia | 3.7% |
Sources: food CPI series from FAOSTAT and IMF CPI datasets, with national CPI releases used where country coverage or timing differs. Values are rounded to one decimal point and should be read as a 2025 snapshot, not as a full-year annual average.
Distribution snapshot: number of countries in each food inflation band
Most countries in this 100-country snapshot cluster in the 5–10% food inflation band. The ranking is therefore shaped by two different realities at once: a broad middle where food prices are still rising faster than comfort levels, and a narrow upper tail where macroeconomic instability or crisis conditions dominate.
Methodology
The indicator is the year-over-year change in each country’s food CPI sub-index, normally labelled “Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages” in official consumer price statistics. A YoY food CPI rate compares the food index in a given month of 2025 with the same month one year earlier, which reduces seasonal distortions from harvest cycles and holiday effects.
The ranking uses the newest available 2025 food CPI observation where country-level data are comparable enough for a cross-country snapshot. Values are harmonised into percent change, rounded to one decimal point and ordered from highest to lowest. Where international databases update with a lag, national statistical releases can report newer monthly figures than global aggregators.
The main limitation is cross-country comparability. Food CPI baskets differ by product coverage, weights, urban/rural sampling, administered prices and the timing of data publication. This is why a one-point difference between two mid-table countries should not be overinterpreted. The ranking is strongest for identifying broad pressure zones, double-digit stress and extreme outliers.
Insights from the ranking
- Hyperinflation and currency stress dominate the top: the highest values are usually associated with exchange-rate instability, fiscal stress or rapid monetary expansion rather than normal food-market cycles.
- Import dependence matters: countries exposed to imported grains, fuel or fertilizer often see faster pass-through from global prices into household food baskets.
- Regional clustering is visible: parts of Africa, South Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America appear more often in the double-digit range than advanced economies with more stable currencies and deeper retail supply chains.
- The middle of the table still matters: a country at 7–10% food inflation may not look extreme, but that level can be painful where wages lag behind food prices.
What this means for readers
Food inflation is one of the clearest signals of pressure on everyday living standards. For households, it affects grocery planning and real disposable income. For investors and business owners, it can point to margin pressure in retail, restaurants and consumer goods. For migration or country-comparison research, it helps separate nominal income growth from the actual cost of basic consumption.
The ranking should not be used alone to judge affordability. A country with lower food inflation can still have expensive food relative to wages, while a country with high food inflation may be rebounding from a previous price shock. The useful question is how food inflation interacts with wage growth, currency stability, social transfers and the share of income spent on essentials.
FAQ
Is food inflation the same as the FAO Food Price Index?
No. Food inflation by country is based on domestic consumer prices paid by households. The FAO Food Price Index tracks international commodity prices for a global basket and is useful context, but it is not a direct country ranking.
Why can food inflation be much higher than headline inflation?
Food prices can react quickly to currency depreciation, harvest shocks, transport costs or subsidy changes. Headline CPI includes many other goods and services, so food can move faster than the overall basket.
Does a high food inflation rate mean food is unaffordable?
Not by itself. Inflation measures the pace of price change, not the absolute price level or affordability relative to wages. For affordability, compare food prices with household income and the share of income spent on groceries.
Why do CPI food baskets differ by country?
Each country builds a CPI basket from its own household consumption patterns. Staples, fresh food weights, urban coverage and retail outlets can differ, which is why small differences between countries should be interpreted cautiously.
Why are some countries missing from global food CPI comparisons?
Some countries publish data with delays, use different classifications or have gaps in the food sub-index. International datasets harmonise much of this, but coverage is still not perfectly uniform across all economies.
What is the best way to use this ranking?
Use it to spot broad pressure zones and outliers, then check national CPI releases for the exact month, basket definition and local economic context.
Data sources and methodology references
These sources define CPI food series, provide country-level CPI data and give global food-price context.
- FAOSTAT Consumer Price Indices — country-level general CPI and food CPI series used for international food inflation comparisons.
- IMF Consumer Price Index dataset — national CPI data, detailed divisions such as Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, weights and HICP series where available.
- FAO Food Price Index — monthly international commodity-price benchmark used as global context, not as a country CPI ranking.
- Consumer Price Index Manual: Concepts and Methods — international methodological reference for CPI construction and interpretation.
- UN Monthly Bulletin of Statistics CPI notes — notes on national coverage for general CPI and food/non-alcoholic beverages CPI series.
