The “luxury” of dealing with a $700 bln equity bailout is that we in the US can still afford food - even at current biofuel-induced levels. That’s not true for the rest of the world, …

By Tom Barkley
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The head of the International Monetary Fund urged
global leaders Wednesday to not forget about developing countries still
struggling with high food and fuel prices, an ongoing problem that threatens to
be overshadowed by the latest blowup in financial markets.

“We can’t lose sight of the other crisis,” IMF Managing Director Dominique
Strauss-Kahn said during a conference on the impact of the commodity price
boom, saying it has the most direct impact on less-developed countries.

While the price of oil and many grains peaked over the summer, they still
remain above year-ago levels and are causing inflation and balance-of-payment
problems in developing and emerging economies, he said.

“The situation is probably a better than it was a few months ago, but it’s
still a very, very difficult situation,” said Strauss-Kahn.

He said the international community’s response in providing assistance has
been “disappointing,” saying donors haven’t provided a “large part” of the aid
they had promised.

The two main priorities will be to help countries bring inflation under
control and to convince governments to adopt more targeted subsidies and other
safety-net programs, he said.

-By Tom Barkley, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9275; tom.barkley@dowjones.com