Pricey tortillas: LatAm's poor struggle to afford staples

“I’ve been in this business for 16 years, and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this,” he said.Latin America as a whole is suffering from “sudden price spikes for necessities,” the World Bank’s President David Malpass said during an online conference Thursday. That’s not much below the 11.6% rate registered at end-2021 and still more than twice the 4.4% expected for advanced economies, according to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook.“It will take at least a couple of years of relatively tight monetary policy to deal with this,” Ramos said.That means belt-tightening and going without some consumer staples, for now, is likely the new norm for the poorest members of society in the notoriously unequal region. More than one-quarter of Latin America’s population lives in poverty — defined as living on less than $5.50 a day — and that’s expected to remain unchanged this year, according to a World Bank study published last month.Sara Fragosa, a 63-year-old homemaker in Mexico City, didn’t hide her anger at rising prices during an interview at one market’s stall.“Those who are the poorest are the worst off, while the rich only rise,” said Fragosa, who said she has replaced her regular beef purchases with quinoa and oats.