a public outcry in may the officer involved chauvin is facing the challenges the lead lawyer for floyd's family says it's a landmark settlement it was a watershed moment for america it was one of the most regis in shock and documentations of an american citizen been tortured to death by a police officer for having his knee on his neck for 8 minutes in 46 seconds one of the worst ever witnessed in history. well coronavirus restrictions of being ramped up across italy from monday 8 more regions including the capital rugman its financial center milan will become red zones that puts most of the population out of the country's most severe measures people won't be allowed to leave their homes except for what exercise or emergencies government also announced a 3 day nationwide lockdown over the easter weekend. the parents of around 30 students kidnapped in northern nigeria are waiting for news of their whereabouts the overnight raid on a forestry college in ca do not state is the 4th mass school abduction in the region since december the army rescued a $180.00 other students hours after the attack and a spokesman for the who's the rebels in yemen says they've rejected a u.s. plan for a nationwide cease fire because it represents saudi and u.n. views earlier the u.s. envoy for yemen said who these appeared to be prioritizing a military offensive to take the region ammara and warn the country will spiral into even greater conflict without an immediate halt to the fighting those are the headlines this hour that's it for myself from the team here in london counting the cost is next. teaching you can watch al-jazeera english streaming live on you tube channel. lost thousands of our programs between documentaries and dan news reports. subscribe t u g forward slash al-jazeera english. hello i'm studying obligato this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your look at the world of business and economics this week the perfect storm pandemic drought and china's demand prices hit 6 year highs just how high could they go. argentina is famous for its beef but the pandemic and inflation has sentimental with snow a since the 1950 s. . also this week ethiopia becomes one of 40 nations to seek debt relief but there's fear many more won't step forward we'll tell you why they're at the mercy of debt rating agencies. the $21.00 trillion dollar u.s. government bond market has been in fits of turmoil amid concerns central banks support for the economy could lead to an uptick in inflation that sent the tech heavy nasdaq into correction territory meaning at last 10 percent of its value investors saw assets and commodities that can weather an inflationary storm like the dollar and oil both rose well the question is are those inflationary concerns real well there's plenty of evidence that global food prices are on the rise take a look at this it's the un's global food index with 2014 to the left of your screen the chart is almost like a bath tub with another sharp rise in 2020 and hitting a 6 year high this year well as you can see the main food groups there they are they're all steadily climbing so you have cereals oils dairy meat and sugar they're all tracking higher according to the un's food and agriculture organization well what's behind the increase in prices it's a combination of things increasing demand from china adverse weather conditions on pandemic supply chains but it's nations like brazil lebanon and nigeria that are. adversely affected in brazil for example president wilson are at times to revive his political standing by handing out coronavirus aid to the poorest inadvertently pushing up the price of rice by 76 percent in lebanon the country is in the midst of the worst financial crisis a pretty worthless currency has said inflation to a record high and food prices soaring by 400 percent and in nigeria the central bank may continue to devalue the currency as a did 3 times in 2020 closing the border for 16 months attacks on farmers an import restrictions of all exacerbated the situation now the government has been trying to reduce imports by increasing production more than a 1000000 farmers were given cash and tools but officials say they're planning to take thousands of farmers to court for failing to repay loans they took out to cultivate rice. reports. on the ability to make and what just closely as time hands prepared you to feel so i knew crop a few metres away other workers tend to shoot my going to use one of nigeria's major rice produces with hundreds of head just of land dedicated to growing rice is a serious thomas like him are benefiting from a government loan scheme to boost domestic production but this scheme faces risks they didn't. know i am i have nor whether they are to mention. we're giving them. and then. though they are. what. leads to 34 member farmers corporate and says they weren't told there have anything back. if it was made clear to us that it's alone we'd have known how to approach it we didn't apply for it so i can tell you that we won't pay back a dime not all of it was money we consider it is gifts or systems after all we see politicians take public funds with no accountability. the so-called. encourages promises small holdings to produce a variety of commodities and to connect produces with the process but 5 years after the program was introduced nigeria still important food the scheme was meant to produce an excess sister interview team an estimated $600000000.00 has been provided to more than a 1000000 farmers to boost rice production critics of the process say it's corrupt and lacks transparency they accuse government officials and politicians of hijacking a scheme that could now collapse because of a failure to pay back their loans. an estimated 40 percent of those who've received money the failed or refused to fully repay some officials say that's often understandable. but one can understand that for one reason or other. especially the last time we had a flood so you can imagine our farmers lost a whole lot. africa's most populous nation has 34000000 hectares of land but only 33 percent is under production this country of more than 200000000 people imports much of what it eats agricultural experts say that's because farming technology is out of date and if the government doesn't encourage mechanization. nothing will change. well joining me now from rome is art that has our best yarn he's a senior economist at the united nations food and agricultural organization thanks very much for joining us so how concerned should we be about rising food prices and is this entirely down to the pandemic well you know when when if we prices go up it is always an issue for consumers it is seen very positively by farmers. just listening back to the discussions you had earlier i think that it is a pity that in many developing countries farmers will not benefit from the higher prices so they they tend to get the worst of the 2 world on one hand they have to pay more to consumers their wonderful countries most of them and on the other their farmers will not be able to respond to high prices and you know benefit from higher income that high prices could bring to them. the level of prices today as they are are obviously high they're not at the highest levels there are still will below the kind of you know prices that we so in the previous serious price surge that happening period between 2000 may 2011 however are put price index if you would price index has been going on month in month for the last 6 not 9 months i would say. and you know it is now kind of the highest since 2002011 so it does give an impression that we are in a market where one could expect prices to remain high still for some time so does this mean that there is enough food in the world to meet demand. yes when you're talking about a global situation and let me be a little bit more precise year the measure that we publish every month really is a bad omen for of what's happening in the global market. individual countries and national saw writer saw a national level obviously situations could differ quite drastic supra one place or another globally is speaking in fact one of the lessons from the code that perhaps wasn't expected and is a positive one is that the agriculture system globally trade globally seem to have not been as much affected as people feared by dicko and that the supply situation overall has been quite adequate and despite all the difficulties and even at the beginning you know fears about logistical issues transport really poor all commodities basic foods such as cereals such as wish to below was sugar meat they really we really didn't see much disruption in trade and supplies have been adequate to meet the demand at the global level and that we have to be very careful with that because what cohen has done in many parts of the world is that it really had cut people's income that means access to food so if maybe in a country but the and probably it is but the question is if i have lost my employment if i don't have jobs or it might earnings has has has come down and i have to feed my family what food will i go and buy and how i'm going to buy it so really the focus has been more on the demand side in this in this at the sort of higher prices right down on the supplies ok and speaking of the demand side how much of this has to do with the demand coming from china well i must say that the china factor has been quite important all the way i would save him predating the coca situation so it's not really cope with related china it's why you can get a very big problem. domestically which which was the african swine flu that basically destroyed you completely except so that had to be sorted out that had quite quite an implication for cruel meat market china came into the market to bite me but then the recovery of that sector in china has been quite astonishing meaning that china would have needed feed as well to import and feed the animals so china become a huge importer for example corn imports will be on anybody expected and that serling to kind of a situation where we had cooling and you had china and us having an agreement called phase one on the ridge china was going to buy a lot of agricultural commodities from us so it's really a i would say it's not one single factor but there were a few things that came together in a very short period of time and all together they have really had quite a quite a obert push to towards prices of all agricultural commodities so how much of that i don't have that is an indian how much of that premium in food prices is then down to speculation and also fears a inflation driving up those commodity prices this is a this is very difficult to answer if i may say because as speculated you know let's say this huge amounts are made at every level from farmers level perhaps all the way than to the consumer you tend to store more if you think prices will go up in the future now depending on where you are in the value chain some of that could of course influence influence or however when we talking about really agriculture sector over a period of like to 234 months not all at night or 2 days or one closing issue of. fundamentals drive it right so there is not right now if you're off in inflation like we had seen for example in 2070. 1010 there you are really in fact speculated activities as as a way of hedging against future in place and man let's go and buy commodities i don't think that we are experiencing that we are experiencing something is more or less at the local level where people may be expecting you know i'm not going to sell now because i know prices will go up higher but uncertainties are huge and usually speculators benefit from uncertainties the biggest uncertainty is not going to cultural commodities is the economic conditions ok thank you so much others are busy and for speaking to us from rome thank you so much. argentina is world renowned for its cattle that feed on the rich grass if its central pumphouse region but records show that last year a large part of the population stop purchasing meats and that's partly because of the economic impacts of cope with 19 terrorism bo reports from one of cyrus. green before ours is part of argentina's tradition lone wolf is proud of what his family has achieved their experts in preparing the traditional less saddle or barbecue the grilling method used by the or skilled horsemen who roamed argentina the region in the 18th and 19th centuries that there was a let me keep the pleasure so here we are proud to say this is a restaurant that feeds everyone all social causes those who have money and those who don't but things have changed it's becoming more and more expensive those who come have less money that endemic has forced restaurants like this $1.00 to adapt its working at 30 percent of its capacity what complicates the situation even more is that beef is becoming more expensive in a country where people are used to eating meat nearly every day latest reports show that beef consumption has dropped to an all time low or about 50 kilos a person a year half the amount consumed in the 1950 s. one of the recent is a changing eating abbots but there is more meat played a crucial role in argentina culture this type of father was a high part of people's life but in the past year the price of beef have increased around 70 percent because of inflation and increased exports and that's why the government is putting together a plan that aims to review the price of certain car due to rising prices cows were taken last year to graceland instead of being fattened with corn they slow down before duction and reduce the supply experts in the air. fear government intervention to control the prices. back in 2008 government restrictions to prevent a rise in prices ended with a loss of a around 20 percent of argentina's cattle herd. i think it's a political action trying to reduce the price of beef we explored only 3 percent of what we consume if the government tries to act on your ficta not on the causes which is the rise in prices of almost everything in the country i. am already he said butcher who was forced to adapt her shop and sell other products she says the increase in the price of beef makes it difficult for her business to thrive. in the most we've had a 40 percent decrease in the sales of beef mostly because of price not everyone can pay for beef people were used to eating at all the time but that's not the case now we're selling chicken and other projects so that we can get our sales up beef going sumption is a reflection of argentina's economy and that's one of the reasons why the government wants to guarantee people have access to it. but failed policies of the past may end up hurting the sector that has made argentinean beef famous worldwide . the world bank has concerns more countries won't come forward to seek help us part of the g 20 is pandemic debt relief program the program is supposed to help $73.00 of the world's low income countries to better manage their debts giving them the ability to spend the money on health care while the fear is that rating agencies would downgrade their debt meaning they would need to fork out more in interest payments or worse turn investors away because their debts are considered risky that happen to ethiopia since seeking help the yield on its bonds or the interest it needs to pay has risen to 9 percent from 6 percent as exports dwindle the country's debt has risen by 26 percent since 2016 to $27000000000.00 for much of the past 2 decades the economy has grown close to 10 percent until that is the arrival of prime minister in 28 seen he had hoped to lift the economy towards a middle income status by privatizing transport telecoms and sugar industries raising billions in the process but with a conflict in the northern tikrit region that's where the united nations alleges atrocities have been committed by eritrean forces the pandemic and more locust swarms its finances may come under strain let's get more analysis on ethiopia from london joining us via skype we have a list of strobel who is the senior economist for sub-saharan africa at i.h.s. market thanks for your time with us so what can you tell us about the latest with ethiopia's debts and how close to a deal or they. are now 23rd of february that it welcomes a furious plan to tap into to g 20 come and find work to rework it step situation as it would strengthen if you can step to stand ability such as through the reprofiling after service obligations that's low risk of step distress notably the bulk of the few p s public external that is official multilateral and bilateral that so the focus of the fucus engagement with the common frame or. is predominantly targeting official that with china being the largest fall actual lender to theo we see that the disclosure of chinese think contingent liabilities may complicate the treatment under the common framework especially with private lenders transparency may be an issue here china does not publish its bilateral dept agreements so it's possible that that contract it is higher than estimated and therefore a larger potential additional contingent liabilities come on and i suppose was frustrated many of the i.m.f. and also the world bank is that the private sector is taking somewhat of a free ride on the back of cuts from a g 20 debt relief deal any progress there at present of the g 20 has actually provided very few details as to how the common framework would be operationalized private and us participation in the g 20 remains voluntary and where it's asked if the depths of a suspension initiative there's no in force participation and the foreign mork today negotiations with private sector credit to us in some b.s. for instance have stalled over investor concerns potentially in accurate disclosure of the country's liabilities so in order to achieve a wider credit to participation in the framework the framework would need to address some of that short comings namely participation and force participation and coordination but also the framework we need to ensure that all bahl actual creditor including specifically chinese state owned lender would provide accurate and transparent accounts of their lending to eligible countries yeah and the private sector would say we just don't know what china is owed and they too may be taking a free ride yes it will ultimately depend on the finalization of high. no actually the common framework will be operationalized and what about the i.m.f. plans it seems to be setting up plans to deploy its own currency or a special drawing rights when it comes to ethiopia how useful would that be for the country and other countries that need debt relief or aid generally an increase and special drawing rights expansionary in boats while for economic activity special drawing rights were originally established to support a country's weak foreign exchange holdings that is a concern for a few opiah. they also are presenting a cheaper means for a country to finance its liquidity demands instead of further going into the international bond on loan markets at the proposed i.m.f. level low income countries special drawing right holdings which increased by a 3 fold so providing certainly an alternative and a sizeable balance of payments support during and in the wake of the covert $900.00 pandemic were after 2 decades of near 10 percent growth what's happened to the economy we haven't seen those highs again yes one needs to note here that to double just growth if you're just witnessed over the almost 2 decades was mainly heavily driven by investments by the public sector into large state projects especially infrastructure and the country has been struggling with depleted foreign exchange for so that were used to finance these projects accumulating dept over time with a commitment to lower public spending that is aligned with the i.m.f. program requirements it is now not surprising to see that real g.d.p. is coming in at lower rates in the near term compared to previous historic riots with floor public spending fueling the economy we are expecting to see an increase in private sector participation instead rates and with plans to privatized the economy is that on track and will that really help in turning the economy into a middle income country. so given the country's foreign exchange shorter situation the government is putting their further emphasis on increasing the stake of private participation in key sectors that provide the foster generating foreign exchange one of which is spanking and the telecommunications sector the government approved 40 percent off its state owned if you're telecom last year for instance and we've seen a large influx of international companies submitting their bits to and at this highly lucrative markets the call for proposals for the exposition off the 2 telecom licenses were issued by the government is still in progress and will and april 5th this year are generally one can say that privatization of for the state dominated sector will not come overnight and a make if you're very quickly a middle income country the timing of the furious banking privatisation for instance it's process will be more is something a gradual transition something faced out process so to speak ok alyssa storable thank you so much for giving us your thoughts from london my pleasure thank you and finally a global shortage of semiconductor chips is hurting high tech industries from the makers of game consoles to automobiles the problem has highlighted the dominance of 2 of the world's leading chip makers type one and south korea rob mcbride reports from seoul. between them south korea and taiwan have a near monopoly on the world's production of processing and memory chips it's a dominance in a strategic commodity that's been developing over years but now making itself felt as the world becomes increasingly technology driven but from here on out it's going to reorder considerably to 8 ships with every model in sight or. it's not a semiconductor in your electric vehicle in your cars it's going to have a retreat it's getting old like other car makers this general motors plant outside seoul has been experiencing delays because of a global shortage of chips it's been a wake up call for many world leaders but the investment of time and money needed to become a chip maker means south korea and taiwan will maintain their lead for years to come it's a global shortage that's been made worse by the pandemic when car factories ramped up production again late last year it coincided with a surge in demand for consumer goods also needing chips and a move towards online activities requiring greater data processing that needs yes ever more chips frank wang is the founder of one of taiwan's chip manufacturers whose business has grown as the island has come to dominate the sector this is a burning portal with one continual so why the bell in the porch opinion i me state and other you know we're country that one is so buying toys in the. process if we have a problem the war or have a problem it's this indispensable that works well right now taiwan's chips are also indispensable to mainland china providing it with the so-called silicon shield against beijing's expansion in the region but also raising the stakes in the increasing comp. the titian between china and the us there is to protect you if you think you get it increased asian tiger woods great if you're going to questions it has never actually jewelry washington beijing in taipei just trying hard to contradict your competition in south korea isn't taiwanese production mastery of a tiny component that makes any potential conflict in east asia a matter of global concern. rob mcbride ending that report from seoul and that's our show for this week but there's more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash intimacy and that'll take you straight to this page and surprise entire episodes for you to catch up on and that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm definitely not against us in the whole team thanks for joining us the news on al-jazeera is next. and account 50 years old and children and. all. the. things likely to be a child and you. believe you see this if. you see. the us city of minneapolis agreed to a $27000000.00 settlement in the death of george floyd his death sparked global protests against racial injustice. we have to show george to our life matters but actions. this is out 0 life and also coming up titans kobe 1000 restrictions shutting down schools and restaurants.