Thread by @ContextNewsroom

🚨 From London to Nairobi to New Delhi, nations everywhere have been hit by rising food and energy costs.

🇺🇦 Triggered by the #UkraineCrisis and COVID-19, the cost of living crisis is devastating ordinary people.

Here's how it's reaching breaking point in 6 countries. 🧵

🇬🇧 UK

📈 Inflation is running at the highest rate for 40 years.

💸 Debt is spiralling fast with research showing there's now a 38% increase in households saying they were a heavy financial burden in 2021. tmsnrt.rs/3PfjM8b

🇬🇧 62-year-old Lenny Poynton lost his job as a removal man in early 2021.

🌽 He now has to skip meals to stretch his benefit income of about £250 per month.

📈 Rising bills weigh heavily on his mind and he just about survives with support from friends and family.

🇰🇪 Kenya

📈 Inflation is running at a five-year high of nearly 8% this year.

🛢 It's driven by jumps in the price of staples such as wheat flour, cooking oil and petrol.

🌡 Kenya is also facing the worst drought in more than 40 years which is hitting households hard.

🇰🇪 Florence Kageha sells tomatoes, onions and sweet potatoes.

🍅 They used to be snapped up by lunchtime each day.

💰 Now, she tries to dispose of them at dusk, losing half her weekly earnings of 2,000 Kenyan Shillings ($17) in the process. tmsnrt.rs/3ATEZAd

🇿🇦 South Africa

The cost of meals for one average household rose by more than 13% in the year to June.

⚡️The country has also been experiencing rolling electricity blackouts.

About 11% of South Africa's 60 million people are hungry and lack access to food, says @borgenproject.

🇿🇦 The desperate economic situation has led to a spike in violent crime on the streets, says security guard Obed Mukwebo.

🚨 He and his neighbours try to walk in groups to avoid being targeted by thieves. tmsnrt.rs/3aJIDlp

🇮🇳 India

⛽️ Food and fuel are the two main sources of inflation.

⛈ Erratic weather is also threatening lower crop yields.

⭕️ The government recently restricted wheat and sugar exports and announced tax cuts to essential goods to help protect citizens. tmsnrt.rs/3yGyPAw

🇮🇳 Shoe shiner and cobbler Babu Lal was earning up to 15,000 rupees ($192) a month in March.

📉 He's now making about half of that.

⭕️ This has left him stretched to provide for his wife, two daughters and five grandchildren - despite the extra income from his two working sons.

🇧🇩 Bangladesh

📈 3.6 million unemployed people are being hard hit by inflation that has ticked up to an eight-year high.

⭕️ Authorities say they expect the economy to grow, but many poorer Bangladeshis are struggling. tmsnrt.rs/3yOda9J

🇧🇩Graduate Abdus Salam is one of them. He’s been looking for a government job for the last nine years.

🥚 He used to start each day with a hearty breakfast of boiled eggs.

⭕️ Now, as food prices soar, he has to make do with chickpeas and a few nuts.
tmsnrt.rs/3yOda9J

🇭🇹 Haiti

⭕️ Roughly a third of Haiti's 11.4 million people live in extreme poverty. They barely survive on less than $2.15 a day.

🥖 About 4 million struggle to eat two meals daily.

🚨 That means even tiny price hikes can push people to the brink. tmsnrt.rs/3zdWBp9

🥘 Like a lot of Haitians, domestic worker Rose Marie spends more than 60% of her income on food.

With inflation rising, many families have been forced to choose between meals or sending their children to school.

🎓 Her two daughters aged 13 and 15 have been forced to drop out.

💰 We are looking at how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting 18 countries.

✍️ Elisabeth Jeffries, @nitabhalla, @KimHarrisberg, @anniebanerji, @AnastasiaBogota, Tahmid Zami, and Joseph Guyler Delva report: tmsnrt.rs/3AXCo8d