A/HRC/12/31* page 6 Graph I The evolution of international prices (2000-2008) Source: Mulat Demeke, Guendalina Pangrazio and Materne Maetz, “Country responses to the food security crisis: nature and preliminary implications of the policies pursued”, February 2009 (calculated by Bureau Issala on the basis of UNCTAD and FAO data). 5. However, despite record cereal production in 2008 and the policy responses adopted by many Governments following the food crisis of 2007 and 2008, the crisis is not over. In its Crop Prospects and Food Situation report of April 2009, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported that food prices had remained at high levels in many developing and low-income food-deficit countries. Food emergencies persist in 32 countries. The analysis of domestic food prices for 58 developing countries included in the report shows that, in around 80 per cent of cases, food prices were higher than 12 months earlier, and around 40 per cent higher than in January 2009. 6. The drop in prices of agricultural commodities on international markets since the peak of June 2008, combined with lower freight rates, may bring some relief to the cereal import bill for low-income food-deficit countries. But this decrease may also lead, perversely, to a loss of interest in reinvesting in agriculture, and to a disincentive for producers; the levels of wheat production are indeed expected to drop in 2009. Moreover, the global food crisis has not unfolded in isolation from the financial and economic crisis that has developed since late 2008. This crisis, according to the World Bank, confronts developing countries with a financing gap estimated at between $270 billion and $700 billion, depending on the severity of the crisis and on