Bloomberg says the rising cost of food is a new crisis for some vulnerable governments and economies.
Global food prices are at the highest in more than six years, driven by a jump in the cost of everything from soybeans to palm oil because of demand from China, vulnerable supply chains and adverse weather.
Some banks warn the world is heading into a commodities “supercycle.” Inflation is putting another squeeze on consumers hurting from pandemic-induced recession and—in some places—falling currencies.
“These price spikes are destabilizing, not just because they induce a lot of hardship on communities and households, but also because there is this expectation that the government will do something about it,” said Cullen Hendrix, non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based think tank.
“The implications are going to last longer and beyond the pandemic.”
