About AMIS indicators

AMIS promotes a better understanding of developments in global food markets. A central task in this regard is to monitor market and policy drivers that impact on global food prices and their volatility.

Price volatility

Concerns about food price volatility motivated the decision of the G20 to set up AMIS. Volatility can have negative implications for producers and consumers alike as well as macro-economic consequences for countries, especially those that are heavily dependent on imports or exports of the commodities affected by volatility. For consumers, food price volatility can lower food security causing poor people to reduce consumption or switch to cheaper, less nutritious foods. Volatility also impacts producers who face high uncertainty about future prices or lack adequate tools to manage risk – which is typically the case for smallholder farmers in developing countries.

Historical volatility

Historical volatility is defined as the standard deviation, expressed in percentage terms, of daily price movements, in either physical or futures markets, over a specified period. Although a certain degree of volatility is inherent in agricultural markets, it can be an indication of market vulnerabilities. AMIS is therefore interested in identifying when observed or predicted volatility is exceptional or excessive.

Prices and price volatility

Providing information on international commodity prices is key to AMIS’s mission of monitoring global food markets. International commodity prices might indicate changes in supply and demand in major producing and consuming countries, or signal policy actions, such as a tightening of trade measures or changes in governmental purchase and stocking regimes, which have proved to be important drivers of food prices and food price volatility at global level.

International soybean price
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