Abstract
This note provides an update of
social protection responses to the food, fuel, fertilizer,
and other price shocks sparked or accelerated by the Ukraine
war. The vast majority of measures were introduced in early
2022 (February-April), although some specific interventions
to mitigate prices were included in late 2021. This
initiative complements other two ongoing thematic trackers
of country-level action on how social protection is being
leveraged in crisis situations – one on Covid-19 responses
(16 versions) and another one focused on displacement as a
result of the Ukraine war (3 versions). Data is preliminary
and meant to elicit comments, additions, integration, and
revisions to be incorporated in next living paper versions.
Specifically, the note tracks four broad measures, namely
social assistance, social insurance, labor markets, and
subsidies. The latter includes five subcategories, i.e.,
fuel, food, fertilizers and agriculture inputs, and fees
subsidies. Data and analysis are preliminary, and more
information on specific measures will be provided as data
becomes available.
Between September and December 2022, the number of social protection and other related measures announced or implemented in response to inflation rose by about 67%. The latest tally includes 1,016 responses across 170 economies. Overall, subsidies claim 34% of such measures and take four main forms (fuel, food, fertilizers, and various fee subsidies). Social assistance accounts for 29% of responses, 78% of which is provided in the form of cash transfers. Tax and trade-related measures represent 21% and 6% of global responses, respectively. Active labor market policies and social insurance claim a share of 5% each. Based on coverage data from 93 countries, social protection programs cover or are planning to cover 1.05 billion people (or about 13.5% of the world’s population). Similarly, based on expenditure data from 382 programs across 125 economies, a total of $710.6 billion is being invested in social protection responses. This involves an average country spending of 0.74% of its GDP. The average size of both social assistance and subsidy transfers represents about a quarter of the daily median income, while their average duration is 4.7 months. Over half of social assistance transfers are new (53%) and are provided on a one-off basis (51%).
Citation
“Gentilini, Ugo; Almenfi, Mohamed; Iyengar, Hrishikesh TMM; Okamura, Yuko; Urteaga, Emilio Raul; Valleriani, Giorgia; Muhindo, Jimmy Vulembera; Aziz, Sheraz. 2022. Tracking Global Social Protection Responses to Price Shocks : Living Paper. Social Protection & Jobs Discussion Paper;2208. World Bank, Washington, DC. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/37441 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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