Rising food prices increases poverty in Guatemala

from the International Herald Tribune

A United Nations report says rising food prices have pushed half a million Guatemalans into poverty.

A report from the U.N's World Food Program says another half of million of Guatemala's poor are now living in extreme poverty due to increased prices for the country's basic food staples.

Guatemalan have seen corn, rice and bean prices rise by more than 40 percent in the last two years.

The report's author Nicholas Virzi of Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala City said another 200,000 Guatemalans who are not living under the poverty line are also struggling to purchase food.

More than half of Guatemala's 12 million people live on less than US$2 a day.

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