Lebanon has officially ranked first in real inflation during the first four months of the current year, with a food price change rate of 81%, surpassing Venezuela and Zimbabwe by 35% and 31% respectively.

Lebanon has now joined the countries suffering from hotspots of hunger, as the classification of about 354,000 residents has descended to the fourth level of food insecurity. It is only one rank away from reaching the maximum level of catastrophic or famine conditions. 

Lebanon, along with El Salvador and Nicaragua, has been added to the list of 18 hunger hotspots in 22 countries around the world, requiring urgent humanitarian initiatives according to the United Nations' assessments. These are based on field surveys conducted jointly by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The situation is further exacerbated by expectations of worsening economic and living crises in Lebanon due to political uncertainty and the continued deterioration of the macroeconomic situation.

The new statistics show a significant increase in the number of people in dire need of assistance in Lebanon, with around 300,000 residents joining the ranks of those classified as third-level food insecurity in the past months of this year. They are distributed among approximately 1.5 million Lebanese citizens and around 800,000 displaced individuals, mostly Syrians.